Masks of Peace
by Jaala
Summary: A rebellion comes forth from the colonies, and the Gundam pilots are caught in the middle of it. Now they must fight for the peace that they'd worked so hard to obtain, but when Relena is taken out of the picture, peace seems harder to grasp than ever.
1. Chapter One

**AN: Let's see. This is my first and only GW fic. It's a chaptered story, and YES it is FINISHED. So you won't get left hanging. I'm just posting a chapter a day so as not to flood the Just In list. Go to http://www30.brinkster.com/abcsrap/gundamwing/summary.html to get warnings, disclaimers, and all the other fun stuff. Enjoy. Feedback would be lovely.**

Heero Yuy closed his laptop, having just RSVPed for Relena's wedding. He sat back. She was getting married to some government official. No doubt someone she works closely with. He remembered her talking about the guy several times, but Heero had never actually met him. He made a mental note to arrange a meeting with this guy before the wedding. Heero had to make sure Relena got the best.

His computer beeped. Heero was tempted to ignore it. He had to go to work, and he was already running behind. But it might be important. He opened his laptop and saw it was a call from Duo Maxwell. It was somewhat strange that Duo would call this early. He usually called later in the evening. After about a month, Heero had gotten used to Duo's weekly calls. They weren't too long. Heero knew he called all the other Gundam pilots, as well, and it was comforting to hear from an old comrade.

Heero checked the time. No, no time. He closed the laptop, knowing Duo would get a recorded message. He had to go to work.

What work could a former Gundam pilot and soldier possibly do during peacetime? Heero had worried about that for a while. He'd been trained to be a soldier his entire life. It was a bit of a shock to put away his weapons and actually do something else. Well, actually, he kept his gun.

Heero worked at Cy-Tech Corporation, a massive information company. He managed to put his computer skills to good use in their networking department. Basically, he made sure everything worked right. It wasn't glamorous, but it didn't really need to be. It was a living.

Heero put on his coat and left the apartment. He'd made a nice home for himself on an L1 colony. His job allowed him to take "business trips" to Earth, where he would visit Relena and see how she was doing. Occasionally he'd get sent to another colony. He'd seen Quatre once, but that was all he'd seen of the former Gundam pilots. Except for the weekly Duo call, that is. He had had a chance to buy a car. In fact, he had planned on it for a while. But he decided that the walk to work was good exercise. He still tried to find time to work out. Just because he wasn't a soldier anymore didn't mean he could let himself get out of shape.

It was still dark outside. The artificial lights of the colony hadn't been turned on fully. The colonies tried their hardest to simulate the Earth environment. Still, nothing could compare to the planet below them.

Not many people were out, so it didn't take Heero very long to notice the person following him. You didn't train your whole life to be a soldier just to be blind to something like that. The person was doing a good job of looking inconspicuous. Heero had no doubt that if he were any other person, he would not have noticed the man. As it was, his tag-along had made a bad mistake by trying to tail Heero Yuy.

Heero continued his walk to work. No reason to stray from it, yet. He could sense the man behind him, following just close enough to keep an eye on him. Heero looked around. Still fairly empty. Good. Not many people would get involved.

Not many people at his work knew that Heero always carried a gun on him. True, Heero had sacrificed a lot for total peace. Yet he had always felt that throwing away his gun would be stupid, and it was situations like this that proved his point.

_I'm sorry, Relena._ Heero thought as he ducked in between two buildings, pulling out his gun. He braced himself against the wall and waited for his shadow to catch up to him. He was very close to his workplace. It wouldn't be too hard to identify the tag-along, take care of him, then head to work.

Heero heard it first. It was a fairly silent morning when the loud explosion cut through the stillness. Having heard that sound before, Heero instinctively crouched down and braced himself for the impact. Then he felt it. A wave of heat and pressure pushed him back against the building. He shielded his face with his arm, gritting his teeth and waiting for it to pass. It did shortly. Heero stood up and walked back to the main road. The explosion had been close. He looked around.

His shadow was nowhere in sight, and the Cy-Tech building had been completely destroyed. Heero stared, eyes wide. Several years ago, he might have expected something like this. But now? When there had been peace for over a year?

Sirens could already be heard. Heero knew that anybody in the building was probably dead, as was any person walking by it. Fortunately, it was well before the regular work day started, so not many people would have been in there.

But there had been people in there.

Heero hurriedly hid his gun again and looked around. His tag-along had disappeared. The bomb in the Cy-Tech building had, undoubtedly, been meant for him. He normally would have been in there, but Duo's call and his shadow had made him slightly later than usual.

Somebody was trying to kill him.

****

"Hey, Hilde! Heero's not answering my call!" Duo stared at the computer screen, hoping that somehow his penetrating gaze would make Heero answer.

"Maybe he's at work!" Hilde called from behind the closed door of her room.

"What time is it?" Duo looked up. They really needed to get a clock in the living room. Either that or Duo really needed to fix his watch.

"It's 5:30." Hilde stepped out of her room. "It's a new day. That's why I'm changing my clothes, remember? What time did you think it was, silly?"

"5:30?" Duo asked loudly. Then he slapped a hand to his forehead. They had stayed up all night watching bad B-movies. Well, all B-movies were bad, but these were just horrible. He hadn't realized how late they had stayed up. Then he relaxed. "Well, at least I have today off!"

Duo leaned back in his seat and moved to put his hands behind his head. He had thought that the seat would support his back, as it was supposed to, but instead, it gave out and sent him tumbling backwards to the floor. Hilde gave him a hand up as he rubbed his head. He had to remember to get that chair fixed. Maybe after they get a clock for the living room.

"Duo, you can go up against dozens of mobile suits and repair a Gundam with scrap parts, but you can't fix a simple office chair?" Hilde motioned to the decrepit chair that they used for the computer.

Duo picked it up and set it back upright. "There, fixed."

"Yeah, until you lean back in it again." Hilde had her wallet out and was counting some money.

"Where are you going?"

"Do you forget everything? I'm spending the day with Jeb, that guy I met."

Duo sat down on the couch. "Oh yeah. Jeb." Duo rolled his eyes.

Hilde glared at him. "There's nothing wrong with Jeb. He's very nice."

"And very boring! Remember when you brought him home for dinner? He didn't say one thing that was interesting." 

Hilde's glare turned to a smile. She bent over and hugged Duo. "You're so sweet when you're protective!"

"Yeah, yeah." Duo sighed and put his feet up, taking up the whole length of the couch. He was mentally planning his day. Take a shower. Wash hair. Nap a bit. Maybe go out and see if anybody wanted to do some sports at the gym.

Hilde was just leaving when she turned around. "Oh yeah! Howard called. He needs you to go in today!"

Duo sat up straight. "What? When'd he say this?"

"Oh, he called yesterday while you were in the shower. I just now remembered to tell you. Bye, Duo!" Hilde waved and then left, closing the door very quickly.

"Hilde!" Duo yelled angrily. Damn! There goes his plans. Oh well. Sleep deprivation wasn't THAT bad.

It was nice having Hilde as a roommate. After all, that meant he only had to pay half the rent. But she really needed to work on passing on his messages.

Duo got up and went to the small kitchen. Whenever they had company over for dinner, which wasn't often, they would put the couch in Duo's room and move a table out into the living room. They didn't have a dining room, so that's the best they could get. They had looked into getting a larger apartment, but Duo didn't really feel like it. The small and cozy feel suited him just fine.

He opened the fridge. Good. One last can of some generic caffeinated beverage. That oughta keep him awake till at least noon. Then he'd go from there. Duo grabbed the can and picked it up. It felt kind of...light. He looked inside the open can. Empty.

Duo growled and put the can down again. Hilde! She couldn't have sabotaged him better if she had tried! Duo sighed. No point getting mad at her. They'd had several arguments since they'd moved in together after the Mariemaia incident. She had a list of things he did that annoyed her, and he had the same thing with her. Seems they were both a bit too set in their ways to compromise even a bit.

_Maybe this Jeb guy will ask her to marry him, and she'll move away with him,_ Duo thought while changing his clothes. Then he paused. No. He didn't want anybody taking her away. Hilde was all he had right now.

Duo really didn't like people leaving him.

He looked in the mirror. Not enough time for a shower. His work was quite a while away by bus, and he'd have to leave now if he wanted to get there on time.

There was a knock on the door. The doorbell had long since been broken. Come to think of it, most of the things in the apartment were broken.

Duo opened the door, prepared to leave as soon as he got rid of whoever it was.

It was Jeb, Mr. Stuffyhead, himself. "Good morning, Duo!" Jeb said cheerfully.

"What's wrong? Hilde forget something?" Duo asked while straightening his shirt.

"No, actually, I'm picking her up. She no-showed at our meeting place, so I figured she got off to a late start."

Duo looked up at him. "She left a good 10 minutes ago. Where's the meeting place?"

"Uh...Halftown Park." Jeb pointed a finger to the wall behind him.

That wasn't very far...only a few minutes away from the apartment. And even if she were late, Jeb would have seen her on his way to the apartment building.

"She's not here?" Jeb asked.

_Hilde..._

"Just a sec." Duo held up a finger. Hilde should have her cellphone with her. Duo dialed the number, reading it off a notecard on the fridge. He heard a phone ringing from Hilde's room. Duo cursed and ran into her room. On her bedside table was the phone. Damn. She had forgotten something.

Duo sent a quick message off to Howard, telling him he'd be late today. Then he put on a coat and walked out the door, closing and locking it behind him.

"Um...Duo?" Jeb looked confused.

Duo put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, pal. We're going looking for her. She must've just gotten turned around or something."

That was partly to reassure the very worried-looking Jeb. Duo knew that Hilde had lived on this colony for over a year now. She wouldn't get turned around so easily.

****

Trowa polished the flute Quatre had given him for the 3rd time in a row. After all the animals were fed and taken care of, there just wasn't much to do when the circus wasn't open. And the ringmaster had given everybody a weeklong vacation to rest. Trowa had decided to stay at the circus for that week.

He looked down at the flute. It was the same one he'd played when he'd first met Quatre. He'd actually tried to play it by himself, but it just didn't sound the same. Quatre had given it to him as something of a good-bye gift. That's what Quatre had called it. Trowa felt guilty at the time. He hadn't gotten anything for Quatre, but Quatre said not to worry about it; that Trowa had given him more than enough.

Trowa supposed that Quatre gave all the pilots little good-bye gifts, but he liked to think that he put a bit more thought into his. He had wanted to ask Quatre if it were possible to stay with him on L4, but he wasn't sure how Quatre would have reacted to that. He was running the Winner estate now, and Trowa hadn't been invited to stay. Trowa had spoken to Quatre a couple times in the past year, but he wasn't really one to call people. Quatre always seemed occupied with his business. Trowa almost wished that Quatre would come visit him sometime.

"Trowa, are you cleaning that thing again? You're wasting polish." Catherine walked over to him. She was carrying a suitcase.

"Where are you going?" He ignored her question.

"Hey, I love the circus. But I don't often get a vacation. I was thinking of going to Earth for the week. Wanna come?" She smiled.

It's true they didn't get many vacations. The last one was about 6 months ago. It was only a couple days off, and Trowa and Catherine had gone to a nearby colony, mainly just to say they had gone somewhere.

"Who would watch the animals?" Trowa glanced behind him at the animals in their cages. People told him they got restless whenever he left.

"Trowa, there are other people who can handle the animals! You need a break!"

Trowa hesitated. He didn't really feel like going anywhere. He felt comfortable at the circus, even if it wasn't open.

"If you'd rather, we could go to an L4 colony." Catherine crossed her arms and waited.

An L4 colony? Catherine must have guessed that he wanted to see Quatre. Well, he did have the flute out, and she knew who the gift was from. But Trowa really felt like he should stay. He didn't know why.

"No, Cathy. I'll stay here." Trowa looked back down to the flute.

"Okay, then. Don't complain when I tell you how much fun I had! Bye." She waved over her shoulder as she picked up her suitcase and left.

Trowa got up. Maybe he should give Quatre a call. No. Quatre was busy running the Winner estate. Trowa had no idea, but he could guess that that took a lot of time.

Why was he thinking about Quatre all of a sudden? He normally didn't think about the guy this much! They'd gone their separate ways a year ago. Yes, they were friends. Close friends. But Trowa had never regretted his decision to stick with the circus.

Trowa decided that he would call Quatre. Quatre would be happy to hear from him, wouldn't he? Quatre was happy to hear from anybody. Trowa smiled to himself. He could just imagine the look on Quatre's face if one of the former Gundam pilots decided to pay him a visit. 

He didn't have to imagine it. He could have seen it for himself if he had gone with Catherine. But...

"Trowa Barton!" He heard a voice call his name.

Trowa turned around. The first and only time he'd seen her, she'd been decked in fighting attire and had just wounded Quatre in a swordfight. He'd left her by herself to come to terms with her feelings and actions. He never thought he'd actually see Dorothy Catalonia again. Now she was wearing civilian clothes. Stylish. She obviously had money from somewhere.

"Dorothy," he said in greeting. She didn't seem to be approaching as an enemy.

She walked towards him. "I heard there was a circus in town, and I thought it might be yours. Too bad you're closed."

"Just for a week." Why did she want to see him?

"I don't suppose you've seen the news today?" Dorothy asked. She was smiling. Obviously she enjoyed playing the messenger.

"No, I've been here all morning."

"A branch of the Cy-Tech Corporation in L1 was bombed this morning. Nobody inside survived." Still smiling. With just a hint of sadness. Some people would never change.

Cy-Tech bombed? Trowa had heard about that company. It had helped develop and run an information network larger than anything else ever created, but it hadn't really made any enemies. Who would want to bomb it?

"I'm sorry." Trowa said in reply. What else could he say?

"Do you know who worked in that building?"

"Who?"

"Heero Yuy." Dorothy looked him in the eyes. Trowa remained passive. She continued, "His shift started at 5:30 AM. The building was bombed at precisely 5:30 AM."

Heero? So was it an attack on him or Cy-Tech? And did Heero manage to survive?

Dorothy seemed to almost read his mind. "They're still putting a casualty list up as they go through the wreckage. Heero's name hasn't come up. Yet."

"You think he was in the building when the bomb exploded."

"Do you think Heero Yuy would be late to work?"

"No." Trowa looked down. "So why are you telling me this? I would have found out later in the day without your help."

"Because I'm going to L1 on an afternoon flight to look for Heero. Even if he is dead, I want to at least try to help."

Trowa looked up at her again. Her expression had changed. She was sincere.

Dorothy held up two tickets. "I thought you might like to come along. Heero would probably be more receptive if you went to help him with me than if I did alone."

She must have known he was here. She wouldn't have wasted the money on an extra ticket if she weren't sure. Trowa did have a week off, and he didn't think Heero was dead. And if he weren't, he'd need some help.

Trowa nodded. "I'll go with you."

"Good! I'll wait here while you get your stuff packed. There's always a long wait to get onboard the shuttle. We best get there early."

Trowa nodded again and turned to his room. He knew there was a reason he stayed behind. This must be it.

****

Quatre swallowed the two aspirin pills and put the glass of water back on the tray. Hopefully that would get his headache to stop for a couple hours. Then he looked up at Rashid again.

"But why would anybody want to do anything against Cy-Tech?" Quatre asked after Rashid had told him about the explosion earlier that day.

The Winner estate had several ties with Cy-Tech. The two companies worked together on a lot of projects. An attack on Cy-Tech was nearly unthinkable.

Of course, Quatre knew immediately that the branch bombed was the one where Heero worked. He hadn't talked to Heero in a long time, but he did manage to keep track of the other pilots. It seemed to Quatre that the target was probably Heero, not Cy-Tech itself.

Why go to the elaborate trouble of bombing such a well-known company just to kill one man? Perhaps because that man is near impossible to kill through any means.

Quatre frowned. If somebody was going after Heero, that probably meant that the other former Gundam pilots were targets, as well. Why was somebody doing this now? After all they'd done to bring peace...

It made Quatre mad. Too many people had been hurt in the war of several years ago. He didn't want any more people getting hurt.

Quatre looked up and realized that Rashid was waiting on him to say something. What could he do?

"Rashid, I'm going to the earth." Quatre stood up. He knew what he needed to do.

"But, Master Quatre! Why?"

"To find out more about what's going on." Quatre was sure one of the other pilots would be heading to L1 to check on Heero. Probably Duo. Quatre could do more good by taking a visit to the Preventers to offer some help.

Quatre looked around his office. He needed to leave now. No time to pack. He had to leave now to get to the earth.

****

"Wufei!"

Wufei opened one eye to see Sally entering his room. He uncrossed his arms and sat up on the bed. "What?"

Sally was already in her Preventer's uniform. "Get dressed. Lady Une wants to see us immediately."

"What's going on?" Wufei got up and got his clothes out.

"I don't know. She just woke me up. See you when you're ready." Sally left.

Wufei frowned. They had just gotten back from Moscow, and both Sally and he were sleeping off the jetlag. Must be something pretty big to call them out now.

It didn't take long for Wufei to get dressed and go to the meeting room. The Preventers had a fairly large amount of money, giving them the luxury of providing a residence for their agents. Sally and Lady Une were already waiting.

"I'm guessing you two managed to sleep through the morning news." Lady Une said. Wufei sat down in a chair beside Sally and waited for Lady Une to continue. "Several days ago, we heard a rumour of an organization that was planning on eliminating the former Gundam pilots."

"Why?" Sally asked.

"We don't know. You two were in Moscow at the time, taking care of other business." She paused. They all knew what that business was. A simple uprising calling for the old days of OZ. Somebody had to take care of it. "We were investigating this rumour and had sent a couple agents out to watch the pilots."

"Why not just warn them?" Wufei asked.

"Unconfirmed rumours usually turn out to be hoaxes. We get upwards of 20 reports of this type in a normal week. We can't possibly act on every one of them. They usually turn out to be nothing."

"But it wasn't nothing." Sally said. A simple statement.

"Heero Yuy's place of work, Cy-Tech Corporation, was attacked this morning. We had an agent following Heero to make sure nobody would go after him. Our agent reports that Heero wasn't in the building at the time of the explosion." Lady Une sat down at her desk.

"Where is he now?" Wufei asked.

"Safe for the moment. Our agent's watching him closely. We need to get the Gundam pilots to come here. Quatre sent a message to us saying he's coming over. Our agent will contact Heero and bring him here. We've been unable to get a hold of Trowa or Duo."

Wufei narrowed his eyes. "What will be the plan once all the Gundams are together?"

"The rumours say that this organization is based on a colony in L2. They probably hope to eliminate the Gundams so that there will be no obstructions when they attack. The organization is supposedly led by a man named Blanc. Not much is known about him, other than he was a former OZ soldier who had defected to the White Fang during the war. He managed to escape to the colonies."

"And now he's started a little rebellion." Sally smiled. "Well, L2 is the place to do it. I'm sure you could get plenty of weapons on the Black Market there."

"So we're going to find Duo and Trowa?" Wufei asked.

"No," Lady Une shook her head. "You're going to L2."


	2. Chapter Two

Heero walked quickly down the street, keeping an eye on his surroundings. He had to leave now. He couldn't go back to his apartment. Who knows what could be waiting for him. Fortunately, he had enough money on him to get him off this colony. He didn't know where he could go, though. The most obvious choice was the Preventers on Earth. They'd be able to do something. However, that was the most obvious choice, and Heero knew that his enemy would have already thought about that. No, he needed someplace that he could lay low and gather information.

He really had no choice. He would have to stay with Duo. He didn't know where Trowa's circus was at the moment. Quatre was too high-profile. And Wufei worked at the Preventers agency. Duo was on a rather nondescript colony in L2 doing salvage work with Howard. Plus, he could always count on Duo to help him.

His cellphone rang. Heero had forgotten that he had it with him. Who would be calling him? Only his coworkers had the cellphone number.

"Hello?" He answered it.

"Heero Yuy. I presume you know who this is?"

Of course he did. Heero could always recognize that voice. "Zechs."

"I'm glad to hear you haven't forgotten me."

"What do you want?" Heero looked around. He didn't see Zechs.

"I'm here to help you, Heero. I'm at the shuttle port. Meet me at Gate 12."

"Why should I trust you?" Zechs had always been a wild card. Heero wasn't sure whether he could consider him a friend now or not.

"Because I'm not doing this for myself. I'll be waiting for you."

Heero could hear the other phone switch off. He paused. He was going to the port anyway. Might as well see what Zechs had to say to him.

It didn't take long to walk to the port. Heero had been there many times before so he quickly found Gate 12. Zechs was sitting in the waiting area with a book. Heero went and sat down next to him. The waiting area was pretty much empty.

"Why should I trust you?" Heero asked again.

Zechs didn't put the book down. "I'm here on Preventer's business."

"I thought you quit the Preventers."

"I did. For a while. But Noin convinced me to join back up with her after seeing how things were going on L2."

"How things are going?" Heero asked.

"There's a rebellion starting. Noin and I stumbled across it. That's when we rejoined."

"So where's Noin?" It would have been better if they had sent her. They must've known that Heero would have had an easier time trusting Noin than Zechs.

"Noin is taking care of other business." Zechs put the book down. "I'm to take you to Preventer's Headquarters on Earth."

"That's predictable. Don't you think the enemy has thought of that, as well?"

"Probably. But I'm just following orders."

"Yeah, well I don't take orders anymore. I'm going to L2." Heero stood, holding out his ticket. He'd bought it before going to meet with Zechs.

Zechs held up two tickets of his own. "L2's where the people who want you dead are based."

"L2's also where I have somebody who will help me. Besides, then I can go investigate this rebellion and see what they're up to."

Zechs stood up and looked Heero in the eye. "I was sent to protect you and to make sure no harm came to you." "You followed me to work this morning?"

"Yes."

"I don't need protection. If you want to go to L2, that's fine. Do what you like. I can see that you aren't my enemy this time." Heero walked past him. The shuttle to L2 left at Gate 36. He would have to walk quickly to get there on time.

He noticed Zechs trailing behind him. So he would have his tag-along for a bit longer. That's fine. Heero knew that Zechs was just following orders. Zechs obviously wasn't involved in this new rebellion, and he didn't seem to want to be involved in it. That meant, as hard as it might be for Heero to accept, that Zechs wasn't an enemy.

A new rebellion. Maybe Duo had heard something about it. If not, Heero was sure the former Deathscythe pilot would be more than willing to investigate.

It was inevitable. The colonies and Earth had managed to live in peace for a year now, but human nature would always turn to war. Somebody would find something to fight about, and no matter how many regulations and laws you put in place, you just couldn't keep them from getting their hands on the resources necessary to carry out their plan. Heero would make sure that this rebellion was stopped before it got out of hand. He had made it through the last war and had convinced himself that there was a life outside of fighting. He wasn't going to fight any more than he had to this time. He didn't want to kill anymore.

****

"You know, Hilde's a little scatterbrained sometimes. Maybe she got mixed up on where we were supposed to meet!" Jeb laughed.

Duo ignored him. Hilde was most definitely NOT a scatterbrain, and she had never gotten mixed up about a meeting place before. But Duo wasn't about to tell that to Jeb. They had been searching for about 2 hours now. Duo sighed. Maybe Hilde had decided to go back to the apartment.

Duo turned around.

"Where are you going?" Jeb asked, running to catch up.

"Home. Maybe Hilde pulled a trick and headed back there or something." Duo scratched his head. That didn't sound like Hilde, either, though. The only reason Hilde would not show up to meet with somebody was if something had stopped her.

Duo immediately stopped that thought. Nothing had happened to her. Hilde was alright.

They reached the apartment faster than Duo had expected. He must have been walking more quickly than he thought. Duo opened the door, hoping, though not expecting, to see Hilde in the kitchen or watching TV or something. But she wasn't there. Duo sighed and pushed the door open. Jeb tentatively followed him in.

"So what are we going to do? Should we call the police?" Jeb asked as Duo collapsed onto the couch. A loose spring dug into his back. They'd have to get a new couch sometime.

"I don't want to call the police. Besides, she might come back later and laugh at us for worrying so much." Duo didn't have a very high opinion of the police on his home colony. Lord knows how many times he'd stolen stuff, and they'd never caught him. How could he expect them to find Hilde?

"What's that beeping noise?" Jeb asked. Duo could tell the guy was worried and was trying to keep his mind off Hilde.

"I got a message." Duo listened to the beep. "Sounds like I've got more than one message. Suddenly, I'm very popular!" Duo stretched and sat up, going to the computer. "You can sit down if you want, pal. There's a soda can in the fridge."

Okay, that was mean. But Duo hadn't lied to him. Besides, this guy was really starting to bug him.

Duo played the first message while Jeb went into the kitchen. It was an urgent call from Lady Une. What was she doing trying to contact Duo? He listened to the message. Heero's workplace had been attacked, and the former Gundam pilots were being called to Earth. Well, damn. Duo started to worry some more until Lady Une finally made a side note that Heero was safe and hadn't been in the building when it had exploded. Duo let out a sigh of relief. Then the closing. Call her back and leave for Earth as soon as possible. Duo's life was in danger. Same old. Same old.

Duo heard Jeb sit down on the couch behind him, awkwardly sitting with the empty soda can. What a geek. He didn't want to seem rude by telling Duo that it was empty. Sheesh!

The next message was audio only. Duo made sure the volume was low enough that Jeb couldn't hear it. Something told him that these messages were somewhat classified.

"Duo, it's me." No need to say names. Duo recognized Heero's voice instantly. He must've been calling from a cellphone. "I'm coming to L2 so stay there. I'll meet you at your apartment late this evening. Don't try to call me back." End of message, thank you Mr. Heero Yuy, it's so nice hearing your lovely voice again. Man, that guy really didn't mess with simple pleasantries, did he?

So he had Lady Une, the head of the Preventers and a fairly powerful government official, telling him to go to Earth ASAP. On the other hand he had Heero, the guy who had a gun and wasn't afraid to use it, telling him to stay put. Duo decided to stay just where he was.

Last message. Also audio. Did everybody's screens break or something? He didn't recognize the voice. Couldn't even if he tried. The voice had been scrambled. "Duo Maxwell, we have Hilde Schbeiker in our custody. If you want her back alive, go to 5th and Crest Street tomorrow at noon. Tell no one."

Duo's eyes remained frozen onto the computer screen. He had thought that something had happened to her. After all, what else? But he hadn't actually let himself believe it. This stuff didn't happen anymore.

A ransom? No. A hostage. Somebody was using Hilde to get to him. Damn! Duo slammed a fist down on the top of the desk. Why didn't they just go after him alone? Were they such cowards that they had to use somebody else to get to him?

Duo turned around in his chair. Jeb was staring at him.

"Go home," he said to Jeb.

Jeb opened his mouth, looking like he was about to argue. Then he thought better of it and left. Duo knew he hadn't heard the message. Duo also knew that Jeb would probably call the police. Oh well.

Heero'd be here tonight. Duo sent a quick message to Lady Une, politely declining her invitation and saying that he had plans tonight. Then he locked the door and turned the lights off. He knew the police would be by to question him about Hilde, and he didn't have any intention of letting anybody besides Heero into the apartment.

Then Duo went into his bedroom. He had a small secret stashed away under the bed. He knew that everybody was supposed to have discarded their weapons a year ago. Duo managed to destroy his Gundam, but, somehow, he hadn't been able to disarm himself entirely. You never know when you might need a gun.

Duo grabbed the small gun from under the bed. Hilde didn't know about it. Nobody knew about it. But now, he might be able to put it to good use.

Duo sighed. _Looks like the God of Death is back_.

****

"Do you know where he lives?" Trowa asked Dorothy after stepping off the shuttle.

Dorothy turned. "Don't you? You are his friend, aren't you?"

Trowa looked ahead. There was heavy security on the colony. No doubt stepped up since the attack. "I don't know where he lives. I hadn't really kept track."

"Well, then it's fortunate for us that I did happen to look up Heero Yuy's address." She smiled. "It's an apartment in one of the nicer areas of the colony."

She headed away from the shuttle gate. Trowa followed. If somebody had told him a year ago that he'd be following Dorothy Catalonia around to help Heero, he would have thought they were nuts. Yes, he hadn't killed Dorothy. He'd been tempted to, but he knew Quatre wouldn't have wanted that. He had hoped that she would change after their last meeting, but he never thought that she would actually do something like this. Trowa decided to watch her closely. It was always possible that she was leading him into a trap.

Still, he did want to help Heero out, and it seemed that Dorothy was more informed as to the situation than he was. Trowa knew that Heero must have made it out alive. He didn't survive the war just to get killed in an attack like that. But he wouldn't go to his apartment, would he? No, Heero would know better than that.

Trowa looked up at Dorothy. She must know that, as well. She wasn't stupid. So why was she going to Heero's apartment? What was she planning to find there?

"Dorothy," Trowa said. Dorothy stopped and turned to face him. "You go to his apartment and wait there. I'll go to the Cy-Tech building and see if anybody saw him."

"I think it's best if we stay together. The times are getting dangerous. I might need your protection." That smile again. Trowa never realized that a smile could look so unhappy on someone.

"I think you'll be able to manage. Which way is the Cy-Tech building?"

"I imagine you would just follow the flashing red lights. It is an emergency area now, you know. Not just anybody can go snooping through the wreckage."

Trowa knew that. He was sure he'd find a way around that, too.

"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that Heero wouldn't possibly go back to his apartment if he thought someone was trying to kill him. And you're absolutely right! But I do want to go to his apartment, because I know that some members of a new rebellion will be waiting there."

Trowa stared. She seemed to be practically telling him that she wanted to join a rebellion. Why?

Dorothy shook her head, causing her long blonde hair to swirl around her. "No, I don't want to join up. I want to meet them to see what they're like. I figured that this would be the best way to do that."

"So you had no intention of finding Heero."

"I'm sure Heero's long gone by now or in hiding somewhere on the colony. And if Heero Yuy doesn't want to be found, then he won't be. I brought you along simply because I thought two heads would be better than one in this case."

Trowa considered this. He had thought that Dorothy had some idea of where Heero might be. Now, it seemed she'd deceived him. That would make her even harder to trust.

Trowa simply nodded and followed as Dorothy continued walking. Despite her lies, the opportunity of meeting the people who were trying to kill Heero was something Trowa couldn't pass up. He needed to see who they were. And if Dorothy were right, and they were part of a new rebellion, then he had all the more reason to meet with them.

Dorothy hadn't been kidding about where Heero lived. It was a very nice part of the colony. Dorothy turned to walk into a large apartment complex. Trowa was sure that the rooms were the size of a house. Each to their own. They took the elevator to the 3rd floor, and Dorothy got off and walked to room number 324.

"This is it." Dorothy motioned to the door.

"I don't suppose you have the key."

"You can't expect me to do everything." Dorothy stepped back and left the door to Trowa.

Trowa, a bit unsure about having Dorothy at his back, tried the handle. It turned all the way. Somebody had already gotten in there, and now the door was unlocked. Maybe Heero was here, after all. No, he'd still lock the door. Trowa pushed the door open and walked in, using the open door as a cover against any would-be attackers.

Trowa felt somebody shove into the door from the other side. Trowa dropped and rolled into the dark room. The only light was coming from a window on the other side of the room. Trowa stood up and felt somebody attempt a punch in his stomach. He dodged it and grabbed the arm, twisting it until he heard the person let out a cry. Trowa could hear a scuffle somewhere else and knew that Dorothy was fighting off somebody. At least two. Then Trowa heard a sound behind him, and he swung the arm he had around and let it go. He could hear the collision of the two attackers as they fell against the wall.

Then the lights came on. Trowa blinked a couple times to adjust his eyes. He looked around. There were two men in civilian clothes slumped against the wall in front of him. Off to his side, Dorothy was standing by the lightswitch and had a sword out and at the throat of a third man. Where had she hidden that sword?

"That's not him!" One of the men gasped while looking at Trowa.

"No, I'm not Heero Yuy, if that's what you mean." Trowa told him.

Dorothy shut the door all the way and stood, sword still threatening the 3rd man. "Alright now. Who do you work for?"

"I work for Blanc and for the freedom of the L2 colonies!" The man said proudly.

"I see. And I suppose your mission is to kill the Gundam pilots, correct?"

Trowa saw one of his men get out a small metal object. Trowa really wished he had a gun or something. Then Trowa recognized what it was.

"Our mission is a mission of revolution."

"Stop spouting propaganda and answer my questions!" Dorothy moved the sword closer to the man's throat.

Trowa knew he didn't have enough time to stop the man. He turned to Dorothy. "Run!" He yelled as he grabbed her by the arm and ran to the far side of the apartment. He could imagine the man pushing the button as he jumped through the window, Dorothy in his arms.

Normally, he would have been able to do some flips and land safely on the street below. But now he had Dorothy with him and the rumbling of an explosion behind him. Trowa curled up as much as he could and tried to shield Dorothy. He could feel the heat of the bomb hit them almost as soon as he could feel himself falling onto the street below. As soon as he felt the ground, he let himself roll away from the building. Then he lay there with his head down, Dorothy beside him, also laying flat. He waited until the explosion was over. Then he stood up.

He'd landed on his left leg wrong. He was going to limp for a while. He looked back at the apartment. These guys were serious.

He could see Dorothy standing up out of the corner of his eye. She seemed to be okay. She was staring at the burning building with wide eyes. A crowd had already gathered. Trowa could imagine what this looked like. Two bombings in one day. Unheard of in these times.

"Come on." Trowa started limping to the shuttle port.

"Where are we going?" Dorothy seemed confused now. Almost unsure of what to do. She hadn't expected something like this.

"We're going to L2. That's where this rebellion is based."

****

Quatre had arrived safely at Preventer's Headquarters. Rashid had wanted to come, but Quatre told him to stay on L4. He needed someone he could trust to keep running the estate while he was gone.

Lady Une had just finished briefing him as to the situation.

"Wufei is currently on assignment on L2 with Sally. Our agent reports that Heero is heading to L2, as well. Duo sent us back a message telling us that he wasn't coming back to earth. We've not been able to contact Trowa," Lady Une finished with a report on where the other pilots were.

Quatre figured that Heero was probably going to Duo. It made sense. But where was Trowa? Quatre was worried. He knew that Trowa was more than capable of taking care of himself, but Quatre didn't like not knowing where he was, especially at a time like this.

"So I guess I'm the only pilot coming here, then?" Quatre asked, trying to push aside his worries.

"For the moment, it would seem." Lady Une was staring out the large window behind her.

"So am I going to L2?" Quatre knew that if that's where the others were, that's where he was most likely headed.

"No, actually. We need you for something closer to home." Lady Une turned and looked and him. "We need you to play bodyguard."

"Bodyguard? For whom?"

****

Relena Darlian signed the paper in front of her and shifted it to the side of her desk. Her hand hit the picture of Heero that she had. Her fiancŽ had questioned her as to why she had the pilot's picture on her desk. She had told him that it reminded her of her ideals. And it did. Not that Heero would let her take a picture of him. She had had to get a photo from a news clip.

She sighed. She knew he was safe and that he had survived the explosion, but she couldn't help worrying about him. If she were younger, she would have gone rushing off after him, regardless of how impractical or stupid it was for her to do. She'd grown up quite a bit since then. Now she knew that she had to let the Preventers handle it. She had work she needed to do.

And a wedding to plan. She'd worked with Kav for a while, and had always gotten along with him. He was the representative to the L2 colonies. She'd been a bit surprised when he proposed, but she accepted, partly for political reasons. The L2 colonies were having trouble, and a marriage between their representative and the Vice-Foreign Minister might help smooth things over. There were other reasons, however. She really did like him. He had an ambition in him that she admired, moreso than in most of the other politicians she had to work with. They worked well together, too.

Somebody knocked on her office door. "Come in," she said loudly enough so that the person would hear.

Lady Une entered with Quatre behind her. Relena stood. "Quatre, it's good to see you again."

Quatre bowed slightly, "Hello again, Miss Relena."

"Quatre will be your bodyguard for now, Miss Relena." Lady Une said.

"My bodyguard? Why do I need a bodyguard?" Relena asked.

"There is some unrest in the colonies, as you know. You could be a likely target for them."

Relena hadn't realized that the situation had gotten that bad. It hadn't, had it? She knew she had to trust the Preventers. She knew just how much work they'd done within the past year.

"Very well, then," she said. "Quatre, I have a small desk over there. You can deal with your business. I'm sure that would be more interesting than sitting and watching me sign papers."

Quatre nodded. "Thank you, Miss Relena. I do have some business to take care of, and I brought my computer."

"This is only for the time-being. We're still investigating the situation. How we go from here depends on what we find," Lady Une said.

"That's fine," Relena sat back down in her chair. Quatre had already gotten out his laptop and set it up on the other desk.

Lady Une left quietly.

****

Wufei left the port on L2. He hadn't realized how dirty L2 was. The colony that he had grown up on hadn't been very rich. In fact, it had been somewhat decrepit. Yet it was nothing like L2.

_So this is where Duo grew up. Figures_. The colony just seemed to match the pilot. Wufei briefly wondered if the colonies of the other pilots also seemed to match their personality.

"The event isn't until tomorrow. We should find a hotel to check in at." Sally came up behind him, handing him his bag.

Technically, Sally outranked him. However, in practice, they acted as equals. Both knew the other's abilities, and they had a silent respect for each other. They were also the best team in the Preventer's agency.

This rebellion was holding a rally tomorrow night. The Preventers had caught wind of some rumours of it. Sally and Wufei had been sent to investigate. 

Wufei scanned the colony. "Let's try to keep a low profile. We don't want to alert anyone of our presence." His eyes stopped at a small, dingy hotel building. "That looks perfect."


	3. Chapter Three

Heero could see no sign of Zechs. He knew that he had followed him to L2, but then he had disappeared. Heero didn't really mind, and he knew that Zech was probably reporting everything back to the Preventers. That was good. Then they'd know that he was safe, and they wouldn't worry.

He had never been to Duo's apartment before. The only time he'd seen it was as background whenever Duo called him. He hadn't realized what a run-down place it was. He knew that Duo had enough money to do better. Especially since he was living with that girl. He wondered why Duo didn't just go to a nicer place.

He got to Duo's door and noticed that the lights weren't on. Heero hoped that Duo hadn't gone out on a date or something and had forgotten about Heero's message. Heero was about to ring the doorbell when he noticed a small scrap of paper with a Duo-scrawl on it that said, "Doorbell broken. Just knock loudly". Heero shrugged inwardly. He knocked loudly enough for anybody inside to hear.

There was a long pause. Heero started to wonder what was going on. Duo wouldn't get up and leave when he knew that Heero was coming over. Heero was about to knock again when the door opened a crack, just enough for a violet eye to appear. 

"Duo," Heero said, questioning his friend's actions. Then Duo opened the door all the way and pulled Heero in.

"Man, am I glad you're here!" Duo said. Heero could tell. He was afraid that Duo was going to hug him, and that would be very awkward.

"Is something wrong?" Heero turned back to the door to watch Duo lock it and then turn around to face him.

"It's been a very long day." Duo said, walking to the living room area.

"You're telling me. Are your lights not working, either?"

"I turned them off. Don't want the police to think I'm here." Duo smiled.

_Oh no,_ Heero thought. _He's worried about the police. This can't be good._ He didn't say anything, though. Duo was acting strangely. Something was obviously wrong. He'd seen Duo get through a lot, and he could tell when he was forcing a smile.

"Do you want something to drink? We got water and more water." Duo turned to move to the kitchen, but Heero shook his head. Duo sat down on the couch. Heero sat in the chair across from him.

"What's your situation?" Heero asked. Might as well exchange data.

"They took Hilde. Told me to meet them somewhere tomorrow to get her back."

"Who?"

Duo shrugged. "Dunno. But I feel sorry for them! Hilde probably beat them around a bit before they finally got her."

It must be the new rebellion that Zechs had been talking about. He had said they were based on L2. They were using Hilde to get to Duo. They must not have trusted themselves with a direct attack on Duo. So why did they try a direct attack on him?

Duo stretched back and put his feet up on the coffee table in front of him. "I was planning on going tomorrow when they said and just shooting the hell out of them. Don't look surprised. You probably knew that I kept my gun. And I'm betting that you have your old gun tucked away somewhere."

"The Preventers are working on this." Heero told him.

"I know. Got a call from Lady Une. I was supposed to go to Earth immediately."

"Why didn't you?"

Duo looked at him as if that were a strange question to ask. "You called and told me to stay here." He shrugged. "I figured the other pilots would head to Earth. You must have your reason for coming here."

"Investigation."

"By yourself?"

"With your help."

Duo practically beamed. "I knew someday I'd get you to admit that you need my help."

Heero crossed his arms. "I don't need your help. You were just the most convenient person to meet with. Plus, you live on L2, where this is starting. If I'd known where Trowa's circus was, I might have gone to him."

Duo's smile faded. "Well, thanks, pal!" He stood up. "You gonna help me get Hilde back or not?" He asked, his back turned to Heero.

"If Hilde were taken by this rebellion, then it would be a good idea to use this as an opportunity to find out more about them. We'll capture the agents that meet with you and try to get some information out of them."

"Sounds good. I'm going to bed. The meeting's at noon tomorrow so don't oversleep. You can sleep on the couch, if you want. Or Hilde's room. Whatever." Duo walked into a dark hallway and disappeared.

Heero was a little surprised. Usually Duo would have stayed up and just talked about what was going on. He didn't even ask any questions about the bombing. Heero had been prepared to tell him about Zechs. He thought some more. Had what he said really upset Duo that much? He was just telling the truth. He should have remembered that Duo tended to take stuff like that personally.

Heero sat back in his chair, and allowed himself to doze off.

****

Duo knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep. In fact, he probably should have stayed up and discussed things with Heero, but Duo was just exhausted. First, having Hilde taken like this. Then Heero's little comment. Duo supposed he had overreacted a bit to Heero, but he was mentally exhausted right now. He needed some sympathy, not Heero's attitude. Duo wished Quatre had come. Quatre could dish out enough sympathy for the entire colony.

Regardless, they had a plan of action, and Duo had with him the one person who could be sure to carry out those plans without a problem. He'd just have to put up with him till they found Hilde.

Then what? Attack the new rebellion? Duo wasn't too thrilled about fighting again, but if a new force was building, who else could fight? He didn't want somebody else going in his place and then getting killed. He'd have to fight.

Duo turned the light off. He should have asked Heero more about what was going on. He knew he could go back out and ask him, but it was too late. They both needed sleep.

****

Trowa and Dorothy had taken a late flight to L2. Trowa wasn't sure which colony to go to in that area, so he decided to just choose whichever colony cost the least to get to. He knew Dorothy had a lot of money and didn't seem to mind spending it, but Trowa would rather keep some cash just in case.

Dorothy didn't say anything about his leg, though it was obvious that he was walking with a limp. Trowa wondered where the other pilots were now. Especially Heero. He'd kept checking the casualty list, and Heero's name had never appeared. Trowa had always assumed that Heero had made it out alive, but it was nice to have confirmation.

Which led Trowa's thoughts back to Dorothy. Why was she doing this? She seemed very interested in this rebellion. Trowa's first thought would be that she wanted to join them, but her actions seemed to suggest otherwise. Could she truly be on the side of the Gundam pilots this time? Trowa hesitated to believe that. He never liked having blind trust in people. Dorothy would have to earn his trust. Until she did, he'd be sure to watch his back around her.

"So, where do we go now?" Dorothy interrupted Trowa's thoughts.

"I don't know. We should find someplace to stay. Then we can go and see if we can find anything about this rebellion."

"Perhaps it's best if I go alone. After all, they are after the Gundam pilots. You're likely to be a prime target, especially on this colony." 

Trowa paused. "I won't learn anything from hiding. I need to see for myself."

"How heroic." She turned to face him. "Trowa Barton, I defer to your superior knowledge." She gave a slight bow. "Lead the way. Where you go, I'll follow."

Fake flattery. Trowa didn't know how much of that he'd be able to take. Unfortunately, he didn't think Dorothy would let him go on his own. Trowa resigned himself to the fact that he was stuck with Dorothy for the time being.

He looked up at the metal sky. _I wonder what Quatre's doing now._

****

Quatre stopped typing on his computer when he heard Relena's chair rock back. He glanced behind him. She seemed to be taking a break from paperwork. Quatre sighed. He wished that he could be out doing something. He understood that playing bodyguard was important. If Lady Une thought it was necessary, then it had to be important. Still, Quatre couldn't help but want to go do something a bit more active. He could be going to L2. Or trying to find Trowa.

"Do you want something to drink, Quatre?" He heard Relena call.

Quatre turned his chair around, "No, thanks. Are you taking a break?"

She nodded, "Paperwork may be important, but it's also very boring. Fortunately, I leave for a conference in the L1 area tomorrow. I can get away from at least some of this there."

"I understand exactly what you mean." Quatre had his own share of paperwork. He always eagerly looked forward to any occasion that took him away from his office.

"Somehow, Quatre, I think you'd rather not be here."

"Not at all, Miss Relena! If you need to be protected, then I'm more than happy to guard you."

Relena took a sip of water. "I think you and I are alike in a way. Neither of us sees the point in war and fighting. We just have different ways of handling it when we do have to face a war." "You think that this incident is going to turn into another war?" Quatre asked.

Relena shook her head, "Lady Une is worried. She has a good sense for these things." She looked up at him. "I know you'd rather be out putting a stop to this right now. I just want to say that I appreciate your kindness in staying to protect me."

"You're a very important person, Miss Relena. It's very possible that you are a target. I understand why I need to stay, even though I'd rather leave."

Somebody knocked on the door. Quatre got up and opened the large door. A man walked in. He was a great deal taller than Quatre. His blonde hair was a bit long. Quatre thought he needed a haircut. The man also looked very tired and even had dark circles under his eyes.

Quatre was about to ask who he was when he heard Relena stand up.

"Kav!" She came up behind Quatre. "Quatre, this is my fiance, Kav."

Quatre turned to her. While she had been at her desk, she had seemed very sullen and serious. Now she was practically beaming.

"Relena, I need to discuss some things with you. In private," Kav said, still standing in the doorway.

"Of course. Quatre, there isn't anything to worry about." Relena said.

"It's okay, Miss Relena. I don't see any harm in letting you talk to your fiancŽ." Quatre smiled. He stepped out of the room, indicating that Kav should go in.

Quatre closed the door behind him.

****

"Kav, how are you?" Relena asked. Something seemed wrong. Kav hadn't moved from his position in front of the doors and he seemed irritated about something.

"I'm very tired." He said softly.

"I can tell. Maybe you should take a break. Let your assistants take over some of your work. It can't hurt." Relena knew that she had been burnt out a few months back. Her assistants had forced her into taking a vacation, and it helped immensely.

Kav just shook his head and looked around the office. "You have a bodyguard?"

"Lady Une arranged it. It can't possibly hurt, and I know she wouldn't have done it if the situation hadn't called for it." Relena smiled.

"Aren't you afraid that the colony will take it as a sign that you don't trust them?" Kav walked slowly towards her.

Relena shook her head. "If the situation is dangerous, it's foolish to go around without some protection. Especially when I really can't protect myself."

Kav sat down in the chair in front of Relena's desk. "Has the situation gotten that dangerous?"

"Apparently so. There have been two bombings, and one of the Gundam pilots is missing. I don't understand why they're rebelling. I thought everybody wanted peace." Relena sat down and slumped her shoulders. She usually tried to maintain her air of authority around people, but she let herself go in front of her fiance.

"Everybody does want peace. However, some people are just unhappy with the way this peace is working out."

"What do you mean by that?"

Kav was almost whispering. "L2 has lived in wretched conditions since it's formation. The Earth-Sphere Alliance did nothing to help it. OZ did nothing to help it. And now, this Earth Sphere United Nation is doing nothing to help it. You can't blame its people for getting restless. I imagine that if you had to live one day on L2, you would understand."

"Kav, we've been working to fix that. You and I, together. It's something that just can't happen over night."

Kav, stood, pulling out a gun. He pointed it at Relena's head. She remained seated, afraid to move. She'd been at gunpoint before, many times. But this was different. Nobody was supposed to have guns anymore. This was her fiancŽ. The man she loved. Why?

"Kav, what's going on?" She asked, clenching her fists. She couldn't yell for help. He'd certainly shoot her. She had to talk him out of it.

"This is a false peace, Relena. While the other colonies live in luxury, my people are suffering. That's why this rebellion must take place. We must fix the errors that have been made and help the people of L2."

"Kav, we - "

"We've done nothing. All our efforts have gotten us nowhere. When you go to L2 for meetings and councils, you see the nice, clean side of the colony. You don't see the real L2. If you did, you would support me in this."

"Support you in a rebellion that will cost the lives of people?" How long had he been a part of the rebellion? Since they'd been engaged? Longer?

"This rebellion will save people. The only people that matter to me are the people on L2. Everybody else has had their fill of the good life. It's our turn."

"And how will you do that?"

"Eliminate you. Eliminate the Gundam pilots. And put our people in charge of the Earth Sphere United Nation. That is the only way this will work."

"Kav, your goals to help L2 are right. And it's what I want, too. But we can do this without any bloodshed." That look in his eye. He didn't care.

"There's no more time for discussion, Relena. We've talked this to death. Now it's time for action." His finger tightened a bit. Relena held her breath.

"Kav, don't." She said softly. She didn't know what else she could do to make him see.

"I'm sorry, Relena. Don't take it personally."

He pulled the trigger.


	4. Chapter Four

Duo and Heero had gotten up early. Actually, Heero suspected that Duo hadn't slept at all the night before. Heero was still tired, but he would be able to do this mission.

Heero wondered why the rebels would ask to meet at a fairly public street corner in during the day. Perhaps they wanted to discourage any fighting. Duo and Heero had agreed to a plan. Heero would stand in the alleyway, listening and ready to help. Duo would be the one to go in and ask them what they wanted.

Heero watched Duo, who was leaning against a signpost. The crowd walked around him, not paying much attention to the strangely-dressed character. Heero knew he didn't have the best fashion sense in the world, but he at least knew how to blend into his surroundings. Duo didn't. 

"Duo Maxwell?" A man had approached Duo. Heero leaned further against the wall and put a hand to his gun. He hoped he wouldn't have to use it. There seemed to be a group of 3 men in total. That girl wasn't around.

"That's me," Duo smiled.

"We would like to extend an offer to you." The man glanced around. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to the meeting. Scenes like this must not be very uncommon on the colony.

"An offer?"

Heero thought. Were they planning on offering Duo a place in the rebellion? That might be good.

"Call it an exchange. We'll release Miss Hilde if you agree to join in a little 'club' that's been started here."

_Do it, Duo. We could use this to our advantage,_ Heero thought, almost wishing he were psychic.

"By 'club', you mean the new rebellion right?" Duo had his arms crossed in front of his chest and a "like hell" expression on his face.

"I see you've heard about it. Very well, then, that is what I mean."

Heero knew instantly what Duo was going to say.

"Yeah right! Why would I want to join something like that? I'm happy with the peace we have now. I'm not looking to start another war."

_Damn, Duo._ Heero should have seen this coming and told Duo to accept if they offered it. He should've known that Duo wouldn't have agreed.

"I see. What should we do with the woman, Miss Hilde, then?" The man turned to his companions.

Duo's smile disappeared. He seemed to have forgotten about that small detail. "Where is she?"

"She could be safe at her home if you just agreed to join us."

Duo looked down at his shoes. Heero was tempted to just walk out and accept on behalf of Duo, but he stayed where he was. It wouldn't be wise to give away his position at this point of the game.

"Are you planning on using that?"

Heero turned around as he heard the soft voice behind him. Zechs was standing in the alleyway with him. Heero cursed himself for not noticing him. His instincts had gotten soft.

He realized that his hand was still on his gun. He kept it there and put a finger to his lips, motioning to the street. He didn't want Zechs blowing his cover.

Zechs just nodded and walked to stand beside him at an angle where he wouldn't be seen.

"What are we looking at?" Zechs asked.

Heero turned back to the street and saw the crowd walking past. He saw the signpost with nobody leaning against it. He didn't see the three men that had approached Duo. They'd left. Presumably with Duo. Did that mean that Duo had finally accepted or had something else happened?

Heero looked at Zechs. "You just compromised an important mission."

"Perhaps if you had told me about this mission, I wouldn't have compromised it.

"I'm not fighting you, Zechs. But I'm not working with you, either. Stay out of my way." Heero pushed past him to walk to the other side of the alley. He would go back to Duo's apartment and form a plan from there.

"I would love to stay out of your way, but I told you: I'm just following orders." Zechs was following him.

"That's not like you."

"Things have changed in the past year. I'm repaying a favor."

"I don't care." Heero wasn't about to team up with Zechs, of all people. Besides, Zechs wanted him to go back to Earth, which was the last place Heero intended on going. 

Heero walked back to Duo's apartment. He glanced behind him, but he didn't see Zechs. He must have given up. Duo had given Heero a key to the room, just in case they got split up.

Heero opened the door and walked in. He saw that girl laying on the sofa. So Duo must have gone with the rebellion, and they were true to their word in giving Hilde back. Heero quickly checked to make sure she was alive. She was, but it seemed that they had knocked her out. Heero left her on the couch. He had some work to do.

****

Duo hoped that Heero was following them because he had no idea where these guys were taking him. He really had no choice but to join them. He had to make sure Hilde was safe.

They walked in silence until they reached a small and dirty shop in the not-so-nice part of the colony. The men led him in there. It appeared to be a used bookstore. Duo glanced at some of the titles. There was a biography of the Gundam pilots out. He wondered what they said about him. Then he thought again. Why was it in a USED bookstore?

Duo's attention turned back to the situation as the men led him into the backroom and down some stairs. Finally they stopped in the poorly-lit basement. They turned to Duo.

"So, you gonna kill me and hide the body down here?" Duo asked, crossing his arms. If they thought that, they had another thing coming.

"We told you. We're asking you to join us. We don't want to kill you." One of the men sat down in a chair. Duo remained standing.

"Why do you want me joining you so badly?"

"This is a rebellion for the people of L2. You have no idea the scope that this has reached already. Duo, you are part of L2. If we had you supporting us, people would be more willing to listen to us." The man didn't seem threatening. He seemed desperate.

"Why should I support you? I'm perfectly happy with my life the way it is."

"You're one of the few on L2 who think that way. You know what it's like here. I don't need to tell you. You grew up here. And you also know that we're getting no help from the government to fix things."

"So you're gonna rebel and kill more people?"

"It's the only way."

One of the other men walked up to Duo. "We don't like using force. But these times are different. We won't fight with mobile suits. We can't afford it. This fight will be fought differently. But we need your help. Aren't the people of L2 important to you?"

"The people of all the colonies and of Earth are important to me. That's why I won't fight."

The men looked at each other. "That's unfortunate."

Duo looked from one man to the next. They had something up their sleeves.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to give you no choice. Duo, we have a bomb set up in your apartment building. The control for the bomb is with a different cell on this colony. They're waiting for the okay from us that you've joined. If they don't get it, they will destroy the building."

Duo stood in shock for a few seconds. "But...I thought that you wanted to save L2..."

"We do. But sometimes you have to make some sacrifices to get what you want."

Duo looked down. Hilde was probably there now. Heero might be, too. He was trapped. What choice did he have?

"Duo, we need an answer."

"Yeah," Duo said softly. "Yeah. I'll join."

The men nodded, and one went into a small room off to the side.

"Not like I had much of a choice," Duo muttered to himself.

****

Trowa and Dorothy had rented a hotel room for a couple nights. The clerk had somehow gotten it into his head that they were newlyweds on their honeymoon, and they had been given one of those honeymoon suites. Trowa had wanted to complain, but Dorothy seemed okay with it.

"We can't do anything to raise suspicions," Dorothy had said.

The room was as horribly sappy as anybody could imagine. Trowa was overwhelmed by the pinkness, and heart-shapes seemed to dominate the room. Heart-shaped windows, heart-shaped mirrors, large, heart-shaped bed. Trowa made a mental note to himself that if he ever got married, he would not honeymoon in a room like this.

"Oh my, what a perfectly horrible room!" Dorothy exclaimed while closing the curtains.

They finally agreed on something.

"Well, we'll just have to make do." Dorothy sat on the bright pink couch and opened her laptop. "Now, this rebellion shouldn't be too hard to find. After all, they are fairly widespread, if my sources are correct."

Trowa sat down across from her. "Who are your sources?"

Dorothy looked up and ran a finger along her eyebrow, "My sources would rather I not give out their identity. Why? Don't trust me?"

"I'm trying to figure out what your stake in all this is."

"Why, for the continued peace of the world! I will fight and win so that the idea of total pacifism may live on!"

"That's quite a change."

"People change, Trowa Barton. You just have to accept that and move on."

Trowa was about to reply when he heard a small noise outside the door. He could tell from her expression that Dorothy had heard it, too. Trowa got up slowly. He was still limping. He got to the door and quietly turned the handle, yanking the door open.

A person fell to the ground. Trowa grabbed him by the back of the shirt and dragged him all the way into the room, closing the door behind him.

"Who are you?" Trowa asked.

The man turned around on the ground to stare up at Trowa. "I...my name is Murker. I, well, was sent to..." The man seemed scared out of his wits.

"Oh, he was sent to find us and report back to the rebellion as to what we were doing!" Dorothy stood up, clapping her hands together. "Well, Mr. Murker. I assume that means you know where we can find this rebellion. I'm very curious about it."

Trowa helped the man stand up. He didn't seem to be an immediate threat.

"I do. But...I can't TELL you anything. I'm..."

Trowa wondered why they sent such a weak person to spy on them.

"We don't want to fight you! We want to learn about you! We won't bring any weapons. Okay? Now where do we go?" Dorothy seemed very excited about this.

"But, I can't..." The man stuttered.

Dorothy reached behind her and pulled a sword out. So that's where she hid it. She must have a sheath for it along her back. She held it out to the man, not quite threatening.

"See? I won't even bring my sword."

Murker seemed about to faint. "Okay. I'll tell you!"

Dorothy smiled, "Good."

****

_This is all my fault._ Quatre leaned his head into his hands. As soon as he had heard the shot, he had run back into Relena's office, but it was too late. Miss Relena had been shot in the head, and Kav had disappeared.

Relena was alive, and the doctors had been able to repair a lot of the damage. However, she was in a coma. She'd probably be in a coma for a very long time. 

_I failed. I failed the Preventers and Miss Relena. I never should have left the room._

"Quatre."

Quatre looked up. Lady Une had entered the room.

"Quatre, we're going to send you to meet with Heero."

Quatre shook his head. "I'd rather stay here, actually. Kav's still loose. Who knows who he'll go after next? I have a responsibility to stay here and make sure that he doesn't hurt anybody else."

Lady Une remained silent. Quatre sighed.

"He might go after you next, Miss Une. This rebellion obviously is not just isolated to the L2 area. It's spread. I think it's best if I stay here, where I'm needed."

Lady Une nodded her head. "Very well. Actually, I'm going to L4 later today."

"Why?" Was something happening in his colony?

"There's some business that needs attending to. I will be back in a few days. You can stay here, if you like."

Quatre had been trying to call his business all day, but no one had been answering. Quatre had assumed that they were busy, but maybe something was wrong. He had a responsibility to his estate, as well. "Is something wrong on L4?" He asked.

"We're not sure," Lady Une sighed. "There have been rumours. We've started taking these rumours more seriously given recent events."

Quatre nodded. "I'll go with you. I need to check on things. Besides, that way I can protect you." Although Quatre knew that Lady Une really didn't need protection, it would make him feel better.

"As you like. Have your stuff ready. We leave in a couple hours."

****

Wufei walked softly, careful to stay on the outskirts of the plaza. He glanced across the street to see Sally leaning confidently against the wall of the building. Already a crowd had started to form for the rally that was being held tonight.

The rebellion didn't even seem to be trying to stay hidden anymore. Wufei and Sally had easily found all the information they needed to get to this thing. Wufei hoped it wouldn't get out of hand. He didn't want to use force. Sally and he were there simply for observation and information-gathering purposes.

"People of L2!" A man had climbed up on a fountain and was addressing the crowd. Wufei crossed his arms and prepared himself for some propaganda. "We are being oppressed!" A murmur ran through the crowd. Good way to grab their attention.

Wufei looked over the man's shoulder. There seemed to be some more people behind him, probably also with the rebellion. Wufei thought he recognized one of them, but he was too far away to tell for sure.

"Did you know that on L1, 99% of the population owns two TVs? At least one car? 72% live on property that is worth upwards of $700,000! Can you say the same?"

Wufei wondered if those statistics were real, exaggerated, or made-up entirely. Regardless, they sounded good, and Wufei was certain that a lot of the people would buy it.

"So why don't we have luxuries? Why don't we have the money that all of the other colonies have? I'll tell you why! Because we're L2! We're constantly overlooked in the government. Nobody will listen to our pleas for help. All we ask is for the benefits that the other colonies have."

_If you actually went out and worked instead of complaining, you'd have them._ Wufei tried not to roll his eyes. He had no sympathy for people who complained about their situation instead of changing things for themselves.

"I was out on a walk the other day. And do you know what I saw? An old woman out on the street. I asked her what she was doing away from her home. She could hardly walk, and obviously needed medical care. She told me that her house had been repossessed because she didn't have any money. They sent her out on the streets! On the streets!"

The crowd was silent and wide-eyed. Wufei was wondering when the guy would get around to pointless anecdotes that tugged at the heart strings of the people. _If you expect me to believe that, you should have brought her with you today._

"I thought we lived in a peaceful world. But this peace is obviously not worth it if an elderly woman is kicked out of her own home without a second thought."

"Wufei."

Wufei turned his head slightly when he heard Sally's voice. They were supposed to stay separated, but she had walked over and was standing next to him.

"Wufei, it's Duo."

Wufei didn't know what she was talking about at first. Then he squinted his eyes and looked past the speaker. Of course! That person who seemed familiar. Wufei could just make it out. It was Duo. But what was he doing in with the rebellion? Had he betrayed them?

"But we are not alone, people of L2! We can band together to protest the treatment of the citizens of L2! And to set an example, we have a resident of our own colony to support us. The former Gundam pilot, Duo Maxwell, has agreed to joining our cause!"

The crowd whispered in disbelief until Duo was pretty much literally pushed forward into view. Then a cheer erupted.

No, he hadn't betrayed them. Wufei could tell by the look on his face that Duo wasn't a willing participant. They must have him trapped somehow.

"Let's go, Wufei. I have a feeling that it's going to get pretty rowdy soon."

Wufei nodded and turned to leave.


	5. Chapter Five

**Quick AN: Many thanks to everybody who's reviewed so far. I'm sorry for not replying to each personally, yet, but I've been extremely busy with work(Hell, I only have time to update in the wee hours of the awful morning). Thanks for the encouragement and comments. As always, comments, critiques, and helpful suggestions are more than welcome. :)**

Heero had pretty much ransacked Duo's apartment. He felt only a little guilty, but he knew that if Duo knew the situation, he wouldn't mind. Heero needed some clothes and other things. He couldn't wear the same outfit forever. Duo's clothes fit him surprisingly well, and Heero had even managed to find some halfway normal clothes. He wondered if Duo ever actually wore them or if they had been presents that he'd stuck in the back of the closet. Heero did feel guilty at having to take some money, but that was also necessary. Heero'd run out of money, and he needed to get a shuttle ticket somehow. 

Heero walked out of Duo's room with one of Duo's old suitcases. He was surprised to see Hilde sitting up on the couch, a hand to her head. She seemed disoriented.

"Where...Heero?" She asked.

"Duo's gone in with the rebellion now."

"The who?"

He really didn't feel like explaining. "You've missed a lot. Turn on the TV, and watch the news. It'll tell you all that happened." Heero moved to the door, briefly wondering if Duo's TV were broken along with everything else in the apartment.

"Wait, Heero! Where are you going?"

Heero looked back over his shoulder. "Earth. Relena's been shot."

"Shot? Wait! Heero!"

Heero didn't wait, though. He left the room, closing the door behind him. If she were really persistent, she'd follow him out and bug him some more, but she didn't.

Heero knew it was stupid to go to Earth. It was likely that people from the rebellion were waiting for him. Plus, he also felt some responsibility for Duo. After all, they were comrades, and he knew that Duo must not be in a very good situation. But he needed to see Relena.

Besides, maybe once he got to Earth, Zechs would decide to stay and watch his sister while Heero could slip away without his shadow.

****

Duo'd been in cells before. Hell, he'd been captured many times. He'd rate this cell at about an 8. It was actually well-lit, and he had a chair and a table. The food wasn't that bad, and the room temperature was pretty good. However, just the fact that they had locked him up knocked several points off.

The worst thing was that Duo hadn't been expecting this so he hadn't brought anything that could break him out. So he was stuck with being used by the rebellion to further their goals.

_This sucks,_ Duo thought as he put his feet up on the table. On the plus side, the people were kinda nice. Bant, the guy who'd pretty much forced him into this, was always nice to him. Of course, that didn't change the fact that he was a prisoner, but it was better than the OZ soldiers that always beat him around.

Duo figured he'd just bide his time until the opportunity arose to break himself out. He didn't want to do anything that would risk getting Hilde or Heero killed. But...even at the expense of other people? Duo hated moral dilemmas.

Speaking of which, where was Heero? He was supposed to have been watching Duo's back. Duo hoped nothing had happened to him. Heero might not be the friendliest guy in the world, but Duo didn't want him hurt.

Duo heard the door opening behind him but ignored it. Fighting the guard wouldn't do him any good.

"Duo Maxwell. How'd you let yourself get talked into this one?" Duo recognized that voice.

He got up and turned around to see Noin standing in front of the door with her arms crossed.

"Noin! I don't suppose you're here to rescue me," he grinned.

"Not exactly. I'm a part of this rebellion."

"What?"

"It was the only way. Zechs and I stumbled across this rebellion while it was still relatively small. Zechs went to the earth to meet with the Preventers, and I decided to stay here and infiltrate the rebellion. I've been stuck here ever since."

"I see. So you're not really into this stuff, then?"

Noin shook her head. "I feel sorry for the people of L2, and I can understand some of what they're saying. But I don't believe that fighting is the answer. It just means that more innocent people will die."

"Yeah. I know."

"Duo, we're going to get you out. You can't do any good here."

"Yeah, but if I leave, they'll blow up my apartment. I don't think I could get there fast enough to help anything."

"I've got it covered. They're going to be preparing to send troops out to Earth tonight. You're supposed to go with them. That's when we'll get you out. You'll head straight to Earth and meet up with the Preventers. Got it?"

"Got it. What are you going to do?"

"I have to stay here. We need someone on the inside to see what they're doing. I've already been in so long that the rebels have a strong trust in me. I can't leave."

"Gotcha."

Noin turned around and put her hand on the doorknob. "Duo, if you meet up with Zechs at some point...tell him I'm okay."

Duo nodded. "Sure. I will."

She smiled. "Thanks."

Noin left.

Duo stood for a minute, then sat back down in the chair and put his feet up. Looks like he'd better rest up before the big event tonight.

****

"This is it," Sally said, looking up at the apartment building.

They'd met up with their contact not too long ago and had worked out the plan for tonight. Sally and Wufei would be preparing for the launch, but first they had some other business to attend to.

They got inside the building to the lobby area. Usually the word "lobby" conjures up a fairly high-class establishment, but the word is used lightly here. The room was simply an empty space with a desk and some couches.

"I'll go up and get her. You notify the landlord," Wufei said.

"Wufei," Sally said sternly, hands on her hips. "No offense, but I bet she'll be more willing to go with me than with you. You don't have the most welcoming personality."

Well, she was right. Wufei generally didn't like telling people that they had to evacuate. It was necessary now, though. Wufei nodded and waited for Sally to disappear into the actual residents' area.

****

Sally knocked on the door, loudly enough so that whoever was in there would hear, but not so loud as to give somebody a heart attack. The door opened slowly, and a young woman poked her head out.

"Yes?"

Sally smiled. She'd never actually met Hilde, but she'd heard about her. "Hilde, hello. My name is Sally Po, from the Preventers."

Hilde flung the door open. "Do you know where Duo is?"

"Yes, actually. And we're planning to get him later tonight. First I need you to get all your stuff. It's not safe here."

"Why not?"

Sally sighed, "I'll explain while you pack."

****

"These are their homes! I'm just supposed to tell all these people to leave?"

"Yes." Wufei crossed his arms and just stared at the landlord. The guy seemed to be a cross between really pissed and really skeptical.

"Who are you to tell me to evacuate my building?"

"I told you. My name is Chang Wufei. I'm with the Preventers." Wufei pulled out his wallet and flipped it to his ID card, showing it to the man.

That seemed to take some of the anger out of him.

"But...how long do we have?"

"Maximum is 7 hours, though I'd prefer if everyone were out in 5."

The landlord shook his head. "How the hell am I going to get all these people out of here in 5 hours?"

Wufei raised an eyebrow. "Would you rather they all die in 7 hours?"

"Wufei! Do you have things taken care of here?" Sally came up behind him. She had a knack for doing that.

"I believe so," Wufei turned to greet Sally and Hilde. Hilde seemed a bit shaken by something. No doubt Sally had told her exactly what had gone on.

They were to keep a special eye on Hilde. She'd obviously become an easy target for the rebels because of her connection to Duo. They couldn't let her be taken again.

"Oh, by the way, could you keep this quiet? We don't want word getting out of what we're doing," Sally said to the landlord.

"Keep it quiet!? How the hell am I supposed to do that?" The man seemed about to crack.

"Don't worry," Sally smiled. "We'll help as much as we can."

****

Murker had led them to a grimy bar a bit aways from their hotel. It was a quiet day outside. A couple pedestrians were walking, but most people must be staying inside. Trowa supposed that the threat of fighting had scared a lot of people. Once they reached the bar, Murker held up a hand.

"I should go in first, and...uh...explain the situation," he said.

Trowa nodded and turned to the street as the man left. "Did you actually leave your sword behind?" He asked Dorothy.

"Of course. Why?" Dorothy was staring across the street at a pet shop.

"Because you're going to have to get ready to fight bare-handed, then." Trowa crossed his arms and tilted his head down. He mentally counted off seconds.

"What?" Dorothy turned to him.

_3, 2, 1._

Trowa straightened just as 3 men came rushing out of the bar. They didn't seem to be trying to hide anymore. The men had thought to take the two by surprise, but they hadn't expected that Trowa would guess what their plans were. Trowa grabbed one of the men by the sleeve and swung him around into the wall of the bar. Another man threw a punch at Trowa, but Trowa caught his arm and took a swing at his attacker.

He heard Dorothy giving a little battle cry. He figured that she could take care of herself. Right now he had more to worry about as it seemed that the men had reinforcements coming.

Trowa was caught by surprise as somebody grabbed him from behind. He'd gotten sloppy. While he struggled with that attacker, another man punched him in the face. Trowa elbowed the man at his back and turned, kneeing him in a rather sensitive area. He immediately swung around, throwing a punch at the man behind him.

"Trowa, they have guns!" Dorothy yelled just as Trowa heard a gun fire.

He turned around to face the unpleasant end of a pistol.

****

It was a fairly long flight to L4. Actually, it wasn't that long, but it felt like forever. Quatre normally tried to keep good posture, but he allowed himself to slouch down in the seat just this once. He looked out the window at the earth. It was still beautiful. It always had been. Quatre almost wished he didn't have to run the Winner business. Then he could go and live on Earth.

Lady Une sat across the aisle from him. She was also quiet. There were some various government officials, but, otherwise, the shuttle was fairly empty.

Quatre wished he could be more of a help. If he were just doing something, then he could take his mind off other things. Like if Heero were okay. Or where Trowa was. Quatre sighed. He wished that Trowa would've visited him at some point in the past year. They had gone their separate ways because they each had their own lives to live. Quatre had been okay with it at the time, but now he was starting to regret it.

"Hey! Turn on the TV!" Somebody called out. There were some whispered questions, but somebody got up and switched on the viewer at the front of the shuttle.

Quatre glanced up, wondering what was going on. Then he sat up straight. It was one of his sisters, Lira. But why?

"My name is Lira Juny Winner, acting head of the Winner estate. As you all know, the Winner family has dedicated their lives to helping those in space. We've given money and resources away to the people of the colonies so that they may live comfortably. However, some of you may not be aware of the conditions in one section of the colonies, the L2 section."

Quatre nearly fell out his seat. What was going on? Lira wasn't the acting head of the estate!

"Quatre?" Lady Une had come over to sit next to him. He just shook his head. He didn't know a thing about this.

****

"The L2 colonies live in poverty, and they are receiving no help from the government. We have done all we can, but we are also restricted in the amount of help we can give."

Trowa mentally thanked the large viewscreen that the city had and used the momentary distraction to disarm his opponent. He grabbed the gun and pointed it at his attackers. Then he looked back up at the viewscreen. He didn't like the way this sounded.

****

"The Winner family places the wellbeing of the colonies above the policies of the earth. That is why we have chosen to support the rebellion that has started on L2. We will do what is necessary to see that they are successful and that the L2 colonies are saved."

"What!?" Quatre cried out.

Lady Une put a hand on his shoulder. "Turn this shuttle around now! We aren't going to L4! Not with this," she ordered.

"Wait! I have to go there. I have to see why." Quatre stood up.

"Quatre," Lady Une started.

"I have to go!"

****

"This may come as a surprise as the Winner family has always practiced pacifism. However, we feel that this situation has reached a point where the only solution is to use force. The time for talking has ended, and now is the time for action."

The Winner family was supporting the rebellion? _Quatre._ No. Trowa knew that Quatre wouldn't have anything to do with that. That meant that they had done something to Quatre to keep him from interfering.

Trowa had paused too long. Somebody hit him in the back, and he fell onto the ground, the gun sliding out of his hand. The man aimed a gun at him, and Trowa knew that he didn't have the time to dodge. Not with his injured leg. He heard the shot and braced himself for the bullet. He never felt it.

The man fell over on top of Trowa. Trowa pushed him aside and looked up to see Dorothy pointing a gun at where the man had been standing. Her shoulder was bleeding from where a bullet had grazed her, but she was obviously okay. She pointed her gun at some new rebels that had appeared.

"Well, go!" She shouted as the men rushed towards her.

"What?" He got up slowly, afraid to put too much weight on his leg.

"I'll cover you! Now go to L4. Go help Quatre! He needs you right now!"

Trowa didn't say anything. He simply nodded and ran the other direction as best he could with his wounded leg. He picked up one of the guns as he left. It could come in handy later. Trowa heard the sounds of fighting behind him, and he knew that Dorothy would do all she could to keep the men away from him as he went to leave L2.

She was right. Quatre needed him now.

****

Quatre stared down at the pod's controls. It had taken a lot of convincing, but he had managed to persuade Lady Une to let him take one of the small pods that the shuttle had. He understood why the government officials couldn't go to L4, but Quatre had to get there. He had to see what was going on.


	6. Chapter Six

Upon arriving on L4, Trowa realized that he had no idea where Quatre would be. He, of course, knew where the Winner's office was, but he didn't know if Quatre would be there. They might have moved him somewhere else, or he could have run away.

Or they could have killed him. These rebels had shown that they weren't adverse to killing the Gundam pilots. However, Trowa pushed that thought out of his mind. He wouldn't let himself believe it.

****

Quatre felt that just marching into his estate and asking what was going on would not be the wisest of decisions. He had to move carefully. They would be expecting him to come back. Quatre decided that first he would find Rashid and the other Maguanacs. He was certain that he could trust them, even when he couldn't trust his own family.

Quatre shook his head. It just wasn't right.

He walked through the streets that surrounded his estate. He hoped that the Maguanacs weren't being kept inside. That would make things difficult. Quatre looked up when he heard gunfire coming from a few blocks down. That wasn't a sound you heard that much anymore.

He ran the several blocks that it took to get to where he had heard the noise.

"Master Quatre!" 

Quatre smiled when he heard that voice. It was Rashid! He looked at the scene in front of him. There seemed to be an all-out battle in the middle of the street. It was the Maguanacs against...well...Quatre didn't quite know who the others were.

Rashid ran over to him. "It's dangerous for you to be here, Master Quatre."

"I came to help." Quatre looked at the fight. "What's going on?"

Rashid didn't have time to answer as somebody shot at them. Rashid grabbed Quatre's shirt and pushed him to the ground.

"Maybe I'll explain later. All you need to know is that they are the enemy."

Quatre nodded. "Right."

It had been a while since Quatre had had to fight, but instinct proved to be strong. Quatre scooped up a gun from a fallen fighter and aimed at the enemy. He tried to stay out of hand-to-hand combat, as he wasn't very good at it. However, in such a close fight as this one was, it was hard to stay out of that type of fighting. Quatre had been unlucky enough to pick up a gun that was near empty on ammo. An enemy charged him, and Quatre raised the gun, slamming it into his face. 

"Master Quatre!" Auda yelled and tossed a rifle to him.

"Thanks!' Quatre said quickly, holding the rifle out against the enemies in front of him. He moved slowly to put his back against the wall of the building so that no enemy could sneak up on him from behind. 

The Maguanacs were clearly outnumbered by the enemies, but things seemed to be evening out as the Maguanacs had the upper hand in terms of skill.

Quatre paused in his fight. He didn't like this battle being right in the middle of the civilian street. The Maguanacs must not have been given a choice, though.

Amid the fighting people, Quatre saw one of the unnamed enemies raising his gun at him. Quatre instinctively pulled his rifle up and pulled the trigger, but he was rewarded only with a faint clicking noise. He was out of ammo already. He ducked down just as he heard the shot. The bullet hit the wall just above Quatre's head. 

Great, he needed a weapon. All of the Maguanacs were busy, and there didn't seem to be a gun in sight. The man shot at Quatre again, but Quatre rolled on the ground, back still to the wall. However, he'd been distracted by the first man and hadn't seen the other fighter until he'd stopped rolling and was right in front of him. The other person took a shot, barely grazing Quatre's arm. Quatre kicked the man's legs out from under him and punched him in the stomach, enough to knock the wind out of him.

Quatre reached for the man's gun but stopped when he felt cold metal against his head. He looked up at the first soldier who he'd forgotten about while fighting the second.

"Master Quatre!" He heard one of the Maguanacs yell.

Then the soldier just fell. He kind of crumpled to the ground, dropping the gun. Quatre looked up from the fallen soldier.

"Trowa?"

Trowa knelt down in front of him. Quatre kept an eye over Trowa's shoulder to make sure nobody was targeting them. "Quatre, can you stand?"

"Yeah. Just got my arm a little." Quatre took Trowa's outstretched hand and stood up. "Um...hi." Quatre smiled as Trowa released his hand. It had been a while.

"Master Quatre, are you alright?" Rashid had walked over and was standing next to Trowa.

Quatre looked around. The battle seemed to be over. Finally. He nodded. "I'm fine." He looked up at Rashid, "But what's going on?"

"Come, Master Quatre. We'll tell you everything that happened while you were away."

****

Trowa was very relieved to have found Quatre alive. It hadn't been that hard finding him. Trowa just followed the gunshots, and had seemed to have come in the nick of time. He crossed his arms as he leaned back against the wall and just stared at the younger pilot who was sitting at the table with Rashid. Quatre looked older now. Trowa wondered if he'd aged that much in the past year.

"It was almost like she'd had it planned, Master Quatre. As soon as you left, she let the rebels in and they took over. We didn't know what her intentions were until she sent the message out." Auda explained to Quatre.

Quatre stared hard into his cup. "I have to talk to her." 

Poor Quatre. Trowa knew that he must be taking this very hard.

"No, Master Quatre! It's too dangerous! They'd kill you on sight. You're a threat to them." Rashid said.

"I know. But she is my sister, and I have to talk to her. I have to make her see that we can't fight now." Quatre paused. "Besides, I am the real head of the Winner estate."

"Perhaps," Trowa spoke up. "If somebody went with him as protection. I think his sister might actually be willing to hear him out."

"Then I'll go with you!" Auda raised his hand.

"No. You Maguanacs need to stay here and out of trouble. This isn't your fight." Quatre shook his head. Then he looked over at Trowa. "Trowa can come with me."

Some of the Maguanacs were about to protest, but Rashid spoke up. "Very well, Master Quatre. You need to get some rest now. You can try talking to her tomorrow, though I don't know how much good it will do."

"Thank you, Rashid." Quatre smiled. "Thank you all."

"Quatre, I have a room at a hotel not far from here. It would be best if you stayed separate from the Maguanacs so that you both will be harder to target." Trowa said.

Quatre nodded and stood up. "Sounds good."

It was a short walk to the hotel, and neither one of them talked much. Trowa hadn't quite heard all the details as to what had happened, but he gathered that Quatre had left for Earth when Heero'd been attacked. He would have to tell Quatre all he knew when they got to the hotel room. His leg was still a bit hurt, but he could walk now without a noticeable limp. However, he'd have to be careful with it while fighting.

They stopped by a small store on the way to pick up some gauze and antibiotic cream for Quatre's arm. Then they made it back to the hotel.

"Go ahead and sit down. I'll take care of your wound." Trowa said while closing and locking the door. They'd have to take turns sitting guard to make sure nobody tried to attack them overnight. Trowa hoped that they would think that Quatre'd stayed with the Maguanacs. 

He turned around. Quatre had taken off his vest and was unbuttoning his shirt. "So where have you been, Trowa? Everybody was looking for you."

Trowa came over and sat down next to him, helping him get the shirt off without hurting his arm any more. "I've been doing a lot of travelling in the last couple days." He hadn't really done anything. He'd just been chasing rumours.

Trowa washed the wound, then wrapped some gauze around it. It was going to be stiff, which wasn't good. It was Quatre's right arm, and that might be a handicap if they had to fight later. 

When he was done, Trowa looked up at Quatre and was surprised to see that he was looking back at Trowa and blushing. Trowa reached out and brushed Quatre's bangs away from his eyes, causing Quatre to blush even more, if that were even possible.

Trowa smiled, "It's good to see you again, Quatre."

****

Wufei finished his first cursory inspection of the area. Security was very light. In fact, he'd been able to wander into the launch site without any problem. That was actually somewhat worrisome as it meant that this rebellion had spread so far and gotten so large, they weren't worried about anybody trying to stop them. A crowd had already gathered, being kept away from the actual site by some construction tape and a bunch of rebels who were on crowd-control duty.

There were 5 shuttles waiting to launch. All of them were passenger shuttles, however Wufei knew that the rebels had at least 3 battle ships in a hanger, ready to go to Earth with the shuttles. And without any defenses, the Earth wouldn't stand a chance.

5 shuttles to carry the important members of the rebellion. Duo would presumably be going with them on those shuttles. How Duo had ever gotten caught up in this, Wufei would never know.

They had their plan. They wouldn't be able to stop the launch of the battleships. That was left up to Noin. Their job was simply to keep the shuttles from leaving the ground and to get Duo out of there. They had planned to put Hilde in a safe place and to get her after this was all over, but the girl had insisted on helping. Sally never did know when to say "no". Wufei just hoped she wouldn't get in the way.

He checked his watch. One hour to launch. One hour to keep this rebellion from getting off the ground. This was going to be tough.

"How are things looking?" Sally came up behind Wufei. Wufei used to be bothered by the fact that she could just walk up behind him unnoticed, but now he'd gotten used to it. She was a soldier, too.

"Alright. They seem pretty confident in themselves."

"They have reason to be. They got this far, haven't they?"

Wufei ignored the comment. "Where's that girl?"

"I'm here."

Wufei turned around to face Hilde. She looked slightly annoyed with him. Wufei wasn't a big teamplayer. He'd gotten used to working with Sally in the past year. In fact, he had a hard time imagining working without her. However, he still liked to fight alone, and this girl was just, in his mind, extra baggage.

"Do you have everything set for us, Wufei?" Sally asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

Wufei nodded, "Of course."

"Good. Which one?"

Wufei nodded to the shuttle furthest from the crowd. They were under orders to try to limit casualties. Wufei just hoped that that wasn't the shuttle that Duo was going to be heading toward.

****

Noin had grown accustomed to acting casually within the rebellion. She'd been a part of it for a little under a month and had made several connections. It was hard to get too far up, as the rebellion was segmented throughout the L2 area, many cells having no contact with each other. Noin had managed to earn the trust of many of the more important members of her cell.

She felt almost sorry that she'd have to betray them now.

She really could understand what they were fighting for. They were fighting for their home, which, Noin must admit, was falling apart. But Noin didn't want any more bloodshed. That's why she would fight in this one.

The rebels had been given use of 4 hangers to store the battleships in. Many people on L2 were sympathetic to the rebellion and helped with some small things. That's how the battleships had been built. None of them had a weapon as massive as the late Libra's or Barge's, but they were still capable war ships and could easily take over Earth.

Noin pushed herself off from the floor, allowing the low gravity to float her towards the ship. She had less than one hour before the big event, and she had only one more bomb to plant. Security was lax, so she hadn't had much trouble with the other 3 bombs.

She entered through a cargo hatch. They were packing massive amounts of guns and ammo, plus explosives. Noin knew that they had been working on this for a long time. Nobody thought much of her going through the cargo bay with her pack. There were enough people milling around that one more person didn't stand out.

Noin exited the cargo bay and went into the actual ship. For the bomb to be effective, it had to be planted near the main power source. Otherwise they might only succeed in blowing out a portion of the ship. She wanted it completely destroyed.

She found a good spot to plant the bomb. Looking around to make sure nobody was watching, she quickly set it up and timed it to go off at the scheduled time. She checked her watch. 30 minutes. She had to get out of there.

****

Duo had no idea what was going to happen. He hadn't seen Noin again after their first meeting, and nobody else bothered to inform him of anything. All he knew was that the rebellion was going to Earth and that he was going with them. Duo really hated being used like this. 

He allowed himself to slouch down in the back seat of the car. He had a guy beside him to make sure Duo didn't throw himself out or anything. The man seemed to want to grab Duo and drag him back up, but he didn't.

They finally arrived at their destination, and Duo obediently waited for them to open his door. Wouldn't do any good fighting them now. He had to wait until Noin did...whatever Noin was going to do. Duo assumed Heero was in on this, too.

Duo hadn't been sure what he was expecting, but he was sure that it wasn't a large crowd gathered around 5 space shuttles. They were going to Earth in those? 

The rebels led him over to a makeshift podium where a rather dignified looking man was standing with a microphone. Oh no. Another rally. Duo had nearly lost it at the last one.

"People of L2, today marks the day of our freedom!" The man raised a fist. Geez, how corny could you get?

The crowd erupted in cheers, and it took all of Duo's willpower not to yank the microphone away from the guy and give his own little speech to the crowd.

****

Wufei looked down at his watch. 5 minutes. The speaker had been drolling on for about 3 minutes or so now. He'd be wrapping up soon, and they'd be entering the shuttles. Unfortunately for them, the bomb was set to go off about...now.

****

Duo was taken by surprise when one of the shuttles in the back exploded. The crowd screamed and people started running away. Duo tried not to smile. That had to be Heero's work. Loud and flashy. The rebels were momentarily distracted, and Duo took advantage of that. He elbowed his guard in the stomach and grabbed the gun out of his hands. Jumping off the podium, Duo rolled on the ground and came up shooting at whatever rebel he could see.

He allowed himself to forget about the bomb in his apartment. Noin had said not to worry about it, and he trusted her.

****

"Hey! You!" Noin stopped her slow walk. She'd successfully planted the last bomb and was safely out of range. She knew that the shuttle should already have exploded, and the bombs in the ships were scheduled to go in about 5 minutes. Noin turned around, ready to draw her gun.

It was another rebel, and he already had his gun out and aimed at her.

"You left something behind," he said, throwing down the bits and pieces of one of her bombs. "Don't worry. We found the other 3, too. The ships are safe."

Well, that wasn't good. Noin frowned while she reached for her own gun. She knew the man would see it, so she dodged to the left as a bullet whizzed past her. By then, her gun was out and she had shot the man.

Knowing that the shot had been fatal, she walked over to look at the remains of the bomb. No help for it. That couldn't be put together again. She'd have to contact Sally somehow.

****

It was crazy. Sally watched the civilians and made sure they were all running the right way. The rebels seemed to be at a loss of what to do, and Duo had disappeared. Sally had her gun out and was walking quickly towards the rest of the shuttles. She knew the more important members would have already been inside the shuttles, though they would have evacuated. That meant that they'd all be crowded together, making them an easy target.

Sally noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see Duo going gung ho on the rebels. He hadn't seemed to notice the person behind him, though, and Sally shot at the attacker. Duo looked up.

"Sally?" He seemed surprised.

She jogged over to him. "Duo. It's been a while." She looked around for any more potential threats.

"Where's Heero?" He asked.

"Heero? I don't know. Why?"

"He isn't with you?"

Sally shook her head. "Come on, we have work to do."

****

Wufei felt like taking the gun away from Hilde. She was a little overenthusiastic about all this. Wufei calmly surveyed the scene. They'd have to be careful about who they fought as the rebels didn't have uniforms. Civilians could easily be mistaken for rebels. 

He looked at his watch. The battleships should have exploded by now, but he hadn't heard any word about it. Something must have gone wrong, which meant...

"Come on," he said to Hilde while walking away from the battle.

"What?" Hilde lowered her gun.

"New plan. We need to destroy the battleships."

"How?"

Wufei allowed himself a small smile, "We'll find a way."

****

No good. The ships were about to launch. The shuttles might be grounded, but the battleships were going to go as planned. And there wasn't a damned thing that Noin could do.

Noin had boarded one of the battleships again. Bad communication within the rebellion meant that not many people knew about the bombs, so she hadn't had any trouble. But now she was at a loss. She'd have to do what she could from the inside. 

She turned her head as she noticed the hallway monitors snap on. There was a communication coming through.

There was a man wearing a blue uniform that Noin didn't recognize. Standing behind him and off to the side, also in uniform was...Dorothy? What was she doing here?

The man spoke. "Attention L2 rebels: We are part of the Pax organization, dedicated to keeping the peace at all costs. We have 6 battleships at this colony, and are prepared to attack if you launch any of your ships. We will not allow you to start a war."

****

The battle in the colony had some to a stop. Everybody was staring at the large screen.

"Who the hell are they?" One of the rebels yelled.

The Pax leader continued. "We ask that you surrender yourselves and your weapons now. We will await your response."

Wufei didn't like this. Something didn't feel right about this Pax organization. Keep the peace "at all costs"? That left a lot of wiggle room.

"Wufei!" Wufei turned to see Sally running up behind him, Duo close behind her. "Time to leave."

Wufei nodded.

"Hey, Hilde!" Duo smiled and yelled at the girl. She fell back to run alongside him.

"Duo!"

Wufei ignored them. "Where are we going?"

"Things have just gotten a bit more complicated. We need to regroup. We're heading to Earth." 

Back to Earth. And leaving these two forces to fight it out.

****

Dorothy held her hands clasped behind her back. She was somehow reminded of her time on Libra with Mr. Milliardo. Like then, she was now the 2nd in command of the organization. And, like then, she'd been a part of a rather large force.

Shortly after the Mariemaia incident, she'd found a small group of people who were willing to keep peace, even if it meant using some rather...unpleasant methods. Dorothy agreed with what they were doing and joined. 

"Sir, the rebels aren't replying," one of the officers said to Powell, the leader.

"That's because they're afraid. They don't know what to do," Powell smiled.

"Sir! There are 2 battleships launching from L4!"

"L4?" Dorothy said.

A trick. The ships on L2 might have been the main force, but it hadn't been the only force. They'd overlooked it.

"They're heading for Earth," The officer needlessly reported.

Of course they were heading for Earth.

"Sir, the rebels are launching the L2 battleships."

Powell nodded, "So they want a fight. That's fine. We'll fight."

****

Heero quietly entered the hospital room. Relena looked like she was just asleep, but Heero knew that she wouldn't be waking up any time soon. He didn't know what he had expected to do once he got back here. He knew that he couldn't do anything to help her. Heero may be able to do all sorts of things in battle, but he was powerless when it came to stuff like this.

Heero guessed that he just wanted to see her before he went off to fight. He needed to reaffirm what he was going to be fighting and killing for. Relena was peace. It seemed morbidly fitting that, at this moment when the world was in the beginning turmoils of war, Relena would be in this position. 

"Now is where we'll part."

Heero didn't have to turn around. He knew that Zechs was behind him. In fact, he'd expected it.

"Can't say I'm too upset over it," Heero said. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to be part of the defense force that is going to meet the ships from L2."

Heero had heard all about the battle. He'd been able to see it on the news on the flight over.

"Fine. Then I'll meet the ones from L4."

"Anything to keep away from me?" Zechs chuckled.

Heero didn't reply. Zechs walked over to the bed to stand beside Heero. He looked down at his sister, not saying a word. Then he turned and left.

Heero stayed for a few minutes. Then he leaned over and whispered, "I'm fighting for you, again, Relena."


	7. Chapter Seven

Duo was very relieved to see Hilde again. In fact, he was so relieved that he forgot to be annoyed with her for going out into the battle. Duo had trusted the rebels when they said that Hilde had been returned safely, but he had still worried about her.

They had managed to escape unnoticed in the chaos that erupted from the Pax organization's announcement. Wufei and Sally had had a small ship waiting for them, and they headed to Earth to regroup. Duo glanced out the window. They were just skirting the battlezone between the two forces. A new group was fighting the rebels...which left him where exactly?

"Duo, I got some of your stuff before the apartment blew," Hilde handed him a knapsack. It wasn't very heavy, but Duo didn't really own much. 

"Thanks, Hilde. Whatcha do with Heero?" Maybe somebody could answer him now that things had calmed down a bit.

"Heero was here?" Wufei turned around in his seat.

Hilde nodded, "He said he was going to Earth to see Miss Relena or something. I don't know. I'd just woken up."

Duo grinned, "Isn't that just typical? He had a friend in need, and he left to go get the girl." He crossed his arms and looked down for a few seconds. "So what's the plan once we get to Earth?"

"Well," Sally spoke up. "Hopefully we'll be able to beat the fleet from L4 to Earth. Once we get there, we'll help the Preventers with their defense," she paused. "If that's alright with you."

Duo sighed, "I guess that'll work. I don't really know who I should fight right now. I suppose that defending the Earth sounds good."

"We're fighting to regain peace," Wufei said. "Eliminate those rebels, and we'll have accomplished our goals."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure. Well, I'm gonna sleep a bit before we get there. I'm exhausted!" Duo gave Hilde a smile and sat back in his seat. He usually couldn't sleep sitting up, but he was tired. It didn't take him long to fall asleep.

****

Noin braced herself with a hand against the wall as the ship was hit, yet again, by weaponsfire. She didn't know whether she should thank this Pax organization or not, but she knew that they were at least providing a distraction. If Noin could get to the engine room, she might be able to pull of a bit of sabotage and disable at least the ship she was on. 

She pushed off from the floor again, letting the low gravity take her most of the way down the corridor. She hoped that Duo, Wufei, and Sally had been able to make it off planet. She knew that if they did, they would head to Earth to figure out their next move. And Earth was where Noin intended on going after this.

She reached the engine room, and was dismayed to see how crowded it was. She'd have to be very sneaky if she was going to make this work. She didn't have many options, however.

Noin could easily set it to explode while she was still inside. However, she'd never been one for unnecessary sacrifices. She set it up so that there'd be an overload shortly after she left. Well, in about 10 minutes. She hoped that she could get to the a shuttle in time and get out of range.

She'd worry about anything else when it happened.

****

While the earth had, in theory, put away all weapons, they felt it necessary to keep some for defensive purposes. All mobile suits had been destroyed, however the earth had kept some battleships and small fighters in case of need.

Now there was a need. Heero engaged the startup sequence on the fighter that he'd been given. It wasn't a Gundam. It wasn't even a mobile suit. But it would work. Perhaps it was a good thing that mobile suits weren't to be used in this war. That type of fighting had died out.

Heero listened to his headset as the rest of the squadron did their startups. Most of the fighters now were veterans of the other war. Heero knew that they'd also be fighting to protect the peace of the earth and space. Heero just felt relieved that he was actually doing something. He didn't mind being more laidback during peacetime, but when there was a war starting, he wanted to be in the middle of it. 

He checked his watch. Time to go.

****

Lady Une stared out the large window behind her desk. In many ways, this reminded her of the time when Mariemaia had sent her fleet to Earth. On the other hand, this was much bigger.

She turned as she heard the doors to her office open. Brax, the president of the Earth Sphere United Nation, walked in.

"Mr. President, I had ordered an evacuation of the high-ranking government officials."

Brax just nodded, his hands clasped behind his back. He walked to stand beside her, facing to look out the window, "Lady, don't you have faith in our defense force to keep the rebels away?" "I do, however, I also know that there is a chance they might lose. That's what I'm worried about."

Brax smiled, "You need not worry, Lady. Everything will be alright here on Earth."

"How can you say that at a time like this, Mr. President?"

Brax turned to face her. Lady Une had to resist the urge to yell at him and order him off the earth. It was dangerous for any members of law-making government to be on the planet. Why couldn't he, the president, see that? Lady Une mentally reminded herself that this guy really didn't have very much power. Thank goodness. 

"Lady Une, you seem to be under the impression that this is a bad thing."

"A pointless war is always a bad thing."

"Ah, but a revolution. That is a good thing."

Lady Une jerked her head to look at him. She'd known that there were some government officials who were working with the rebellion, but the president?

"Revolution," Brax continued. "Brings about change. And now is the time for a much-needed change in how we handle the colonies."

Lady Une took a step backwards to her desk. She had a gun in one of the drawers. If she could get to it...he wasn't armed. Not that she could see. But, surely, he must have something planned.

"I suppose that's why it's necessary to use drastic measures such as this," Brax seemed oblivious to Lady Une's movements. "If you try to do things the political way, it will always get killed in committee. Surely you, as a military woman can understand that," he turned to her.

Lady Une put her hand against the handle of the drawer, "Oh, I think I understand perfectly, Mr. President." She pulled slightly, hoping he wouldn't notice her.

"Good," he smiled again. He reached inside his jacket and pulled a gun out. Lady Une knew it was past the time for subtlety. She yanked the drawer open and reached for her own gun, but Brax hit her in the temple with his. She fell onto the floor, seeing spots in front of her eyes. She struggled internally to keep from passing out.

She felt him reach down and pick her up from the front of her shirt. She tried to struggle, but was having trouble moving. He raised his arm and brought the gun down at the back of her head, effectively knocking her unconscious.

****

Nobody had attacked them during the night. Quatre knew that they must think he was with the Maguanacs. He hoped they were all alright, but he couldn't take the time to find out. He had to get in to see his sister.

Lira was...well...Quatre remembered her vaguely. He got so confused trying to keep all his sisters straight. He was sure he had met her once, and she seemed nice at the time. She might have gotten coerced into doing this.

Trowa walked beside him as they made their way to the estate. Quatre had been reluctant to go in alone, but now, when he had somebody with him and some more people on the colony who knew where he was, it was safer. Quatre was also just relieved to have Trowa with him. Trowa's calm and cool-headedness were contagious, and Quatre always felt like he was better able to deal with things when Trowa was around.

"So we're just going to go up and ask to go in?" Trowa asked.

"I don't see any other way. She has to hear me out. I know that they probably want me dead, but I don't think my sister would kill me at the gate of the estate."

Trowa didn't say anything, but Quatre knew what he was thinking. _She might kill you once you get inside._ He shook his head at the thought. He remembered the last time there was trouble in the family. His father, fed up with the colonies, killed himself. And Quatre couldn't do anything to help. Quatre really couldn't remember much of what had happened afterward. He built Wing Zero, and then he just...went nuts.

He was definitely glad that Trowa was with him this time.

****

Trowa had never seen it, but he knew that the gates of the Winner estate usually were open to show that people were welcome to what the Winners had to offer. Now, however, the gates were closed, locked, and guarded.

The guards readied their guns upon seeing Quatre approach, and Trowa kept a hand on his own weapon, ready to use it if necessary. Quatre, however, raised his hands above his head.

"I don't want to fight. I have no weapon. I just want to speak to Lira," Quatre approached slowly.

One of the guards paused, then pulled out a small communicator. He talked quietly into it, and Trowa couldn't make out what he was saying. Finally he put away the unit and nodded.

"We'll lead you in," the guard looked at Trowa. "Does he have any weapons?"

Trowa was tempted to say "no", but he knew they would search him and find it. That would look bad on Quatre. So he pulled out the gun that he had acquired back on L2 and threw it on the ground.

The guards didn't bother to search Quatre. Of course, they probably knew from Lira that Quatre was horrible at lying. If he said he didn't have any weapons, then he didn't have any weapons.

They opened the gates and led them to the large mansion. One guard led, two followed behind Trowa and Quatre. Trowa knew, just at a glance, that this place would be hard to get out of if they needed a quick escape. He hoped that Quatre knew some secrets about the mansion that could help them out.

The inside of the building was no less grand than the outside. However, there were guards in every room, ruining the feel. A couple servants walked around, all of them obviously recognizing Quatre. Trowa risked a glance beside him at Quatre. Quatre didn't even look towards the servants, his face was focused straight ahead. Trowa didn't think he'd ever seen him this angry. Of course, he had every reason to be. This was Quatre's business, almost his life, and someone had taken over and corrupted it. Trowa knew that even a nice guy like Quatre would get mad over that.

They were led into a large office. Trowa presumed that it was Quatre's. It was nicely furnished with a large desk in front of a wall-to-wall window. A woman was sitting at the desk, pushing stacks of paper into a trash can. She looked up as they entered.

"I was wondering when you'd come," she put the trash can down and stood up, walking around the desk. This had to be Quatre's sister. The resemblance was uncanny.

Quatre walked in front of the guard, but not so far as to seem a real threat to Lira. "What is going on here?" Quatre asked.

Lira sighed. "I knew you wouldn't understand," she looked at Trowa. "You must be Trowa Barton. Quatre's mentioned you several times."

She was changing the subject, but Quatre wasn't going to let her get away with it.

"Lira," he said in Quatre's You're-wrong-I'm-right-now-let-me-convince-you voice. "You've let rebels take over our family's business, and that's all you have to say?"

Lira crossed her arms, "I support what the rebels are doing. Quatre, the Winners are for the colonies. We have always been for the colonies, right? Well, now, one of the colonies need our help. I won't turn our back on them."

"There are other ways of helping that don't use violence. These rebels are out to start another war!"

"Perhaps it's best that way," she glanced out of the window. "Then people will realize that this is serious. Then things will get done."

"And people will die!"

Lira looked back at Quatre. "Quatre," she hesitated, trying to figure out what she wanted to say. "Quatre, people die. And I don't like it any more than you do. But this is a necessary war."

"War is never necessary."

"You didn't used to think so, Gundam 04," she said a bit harshly.

She'd hit something. Quatre remained silent. Trowa knew that he shouldn't speak up. It wasn't his place. Not yet, anyway.

"Our little brother," she smiled. "You fought so bravely to free the colonies. Now you're starting to sound like Father."

Quatre's father. Who had killed himself to hold onto his pacifist ideals. Trowa watched Quatre carefully. He knew that Quatre had trouble holding up against psychological manipulations. He'd have to be ready to help him if this went too far.

Lira took a step towards Quatre. "Quatre, total pacifism is a worthy goal, but sometimes it just isn't practical. Father didn't see that. That's why he died. I knew from the moment this broke out that you would have trouble knowing how to deal with it. So, when you left, I decided to take over and save you the trouble," she sighed. "I don't want them to kill you, Quatre. But the rebels think you're a threat. That's why your Maguanac friends were attacked."

"This is wrong," Quatre said weakly.

_Damn. She's getting to him._ Trowa knew it was now or never.

"It's for the good of the colonies, Quatre. That's what you fought for in the war. Why won't you fight for it now?" Lira said.

"There's something you're forgetting, Lira," Trowa spoke up. Lira looked at him, surprised that he'd said anything. Quatre looked gratefully at him. "The Gundam pilots fought to keep the war away from the colonies. Our targets were clearly military. Already, however, this rebellion has bombed a civilian company and a civilian apartment complex, both of which were on the same colonies you claim to be defending. This isn't for the good of the colonies. It's for the good of L2, at the expense of everybody else."

Lira didn't say anything. She seemed too intent on glaring at him. He continued, "If their methods were different, I might be able to support them. As it is, I can't support terrorism. Even if they do want to help L2, they're going about it the wrong way."

Lira just nodded, "I had hoped I could convince you." She looked back at Quatre, "However, I suppose it doesn't really matter what our opinions are. At this moment, 2 battleships, funded by the Winner family, have been launched and are heading for Earth."

"What?" Quatre cried.

"Yes," she continued. "It's just part of our contribution to the rebellion. If you leave now, I'll let you go unharmed. But Quatre, I would recommend you stay away from L4. You aren't needed here anymore."

"But..." Quatre said.

Trowa put a hand on his shoulder. Quatre looked at him. "Let's go," Trowa said.

Quatre paused a moment, looking back at his sister. Then he turned and nodded, leading the way out of the room. Guards followed them as they walked out of the estate.

"What should we do now?" Quatre asked.

"The way I see it, we can either go to Earth, which is probably what all the other Gundam pilots are doing."

"Or?" Quatre said.

"Or we could try to find out more about what's going on."

Quatre nodded, looking at the ground in front of him. "We need...we need to find out more. They keep taking us by surprise. We need to find out all we can before we can fight them."

Trowa put a comforting hand on his shoulder again. "Let's go, then."


	8. Chapter Eight

Heero opened his eyes as he heard his proximity alert beeping. They'd reached the warships that had been sent from L4. He switched his comm on so he could hear the other pilots in the battle. Earth had only been able to send 2 dozen small fighters and one very meager battleship to fight. However, they were only up against two battleships. The force heading to L2 had 4 battleships to deal with.

Still, these were ships funded and built by the Winner corporation. That meant quality for the rebels and bad news for Earth. Which was why Heero had to stop them now before they got any farther.

"All fighters, power up laser rifles and prepare to make runs on the battleships," a commander's voice filled Heero's headset. "Squad Red, take the first ship. Squad Blue, the second. Stay in formation."

Heero echoed his acknowledgement along with the rest of the fighter pilots. He knew that the other pilots were probably all former OZ or Alliance members. He was fighting with the people he had called his enemies only a couple years ago. How times change.

Heero took the fighter on a course towards the 2nd battleship, following the formation that the other pilots had naturally fallen into. Old habits die hard.

The battleship started firing immediately. Heero managed to work his ship around the blasts to close in on the large battleship. If he could disable it's engines, then it would be dead in space and would have no hope of reaching Earth. That was Heero's goal.

A lucky shot grazed his fighter. His controls fizzled for a bit, but only the outgoing comm system had been brought down. He wouldn't be able to send messages out to anybody, but he could still hear orders. He couldn't afford another hit like that, though.

He approached the battleship quickly, following the rest of Squad Blue. These pilots had never trained together, never fought together, and didn't even know each other's names. It was fairly obvious that Earth's defense was rather meager.

The fighter in front of him exploded as a shot hit it. Heero flew around the explosion. The movies always made it look cool to fly through an explosion, but at that close a range, the debris and heat would have damaged Heero's fighter.

Heero armed his torpedoes as he approached the engines of the ship. He locked on, getting as close as he could while risking fire from the rebel ship. Then he fired. The torpedo shot out of the fighter and towards the massive engines...and missed. Heero cursed to himself. The targeting sensors must be off in the ship.

A shot came near his port side. Heero pulled up quickly to avoid it, but his systems locked out at the sudden movement. Another shot hit his ship full on. Heero ducked his head as the fighter shuddered around him. He didn't think it would hold together, but it did.

Heero checked his status. Not good. That last hit had damaged his sensors so he was pretty much blind to the outside world. For all he knew, he could be heading straight for one of the battleships. His engines were out. Heero tried a bit of mechanical magic to get them working, but they remained dead. What Heero wouldn't give for his Gundam at that moment.

"All units fall back. Enemy is retreating. Do not pursue. Fall back to Earth," a voice crackled over his headset. Too bad he couldn't send them a message, but his comm unit had been screwed up early on.

Heero frowned. The Earth side must have gotten beaten pretty badly if they weren't pursuing. Heero didn't hold out much hope for somebody picking him up. He probably looked like just another piece of debris floating in space. He had enough air for 20 hours. After that...

Heero sat back, knowing there wasn't much he could do. He didn't have a spacesuit, so he couldn't get out of the fighter. And he couldn't do any repairwork from the cockpit. He took advantage of about the only working system he had and turned on his monitor. There was a news update. Heero's eyes widened. The rebellion had managed to take over the Earth government.

That meant that the Preventers would have to be on the run, without the resources that they had before. And that also meant that the retreating fleet would meet with some problems when they went back to Earth. 

Things were not looking good.

****

"Duo."

Duo slapped lightly at whoever was shaking him. He was running on practically no sleep at the moment, and he didn't think it was too much to ask that he get a nap before they reach Earth.

"Duo, this is kind of important!" Hilde sounded slightly panicked.

Duo reluctantly opened his eyes and looked around, "What's going on?" He looked out the window, "Isn't Earth the other way?"

"We aren't going to Earth," Sally said.

"But I thought - "

"News just came on. Earth's been taken over by the rebellion. They have a force surrounding the Earth. There's no chance that we'd be able to get through."

"So where are we headed now?"

"To meet up with Earth's fleet."

Duo saw Wufei turn around and give him a scrutinizing look. Then he turned to Sally, "We don't have to. We can go to Earth now."

"What? But - " Sally turned around to look at Duo and a look of understanding filled her eyes. "I see."

Duo looked down at himself to see if somebody had written the answer on him while he was asleep. "Uh...guys?"

"Duo, how are your acting skills?" Sally asked.

"Er..."

****

"Hey there. Got a couple of Preventers agents for ya."

Wufei cringed. He couldn't see what was going on, but he could hear Duo's voice loud and clear. He was in back with Sally and that girl, letting Duo put on his little act. Duo truly was not an actor.

"Huh? Well, it took me a while to think things over. But I decided that you all are right. L2 has been poorly underrepresented and some changes need to be made. So I guess I am supporting you now."

Wufei couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but he could only imagine the disbelief. Maybe the rebel was real gullible.

"Really? Thanks. Got the coordinates. See ya planetside."

It worked?

"Hey, you all can come out now! We have a ship to crash!"

Wufei entered the front of the small ship. Duo was already preparing the engines to explode. A barely controlled crash would get them on Earth and away from the rebels. They'd work from there to take care of the rebellion from Earth. If they could get them contained to the L2 colonies, it would be easier to take them out.

Of course, they'd have to get the leader, who, so far, hadn't shown himself. Wufei knew that taking away the leader of this rebellion would cause the supporters to fall apart. But it would also take something more than just that. The people needed to be shown that fighting wasn't the answer. And Wufei didn't know if anybody could do that.

The ship lurched and Wufei caught Hilde as she was thrown against the side. "Hold onto something," he told her while grabbing onto a support. She nodded and sat down, holding on to a console.

Sally had taken the copilot's seat, and Wufei let her and Duo work on their descent.

"Ya got a landing spot in mind?" Duo asked, keeping both hands at the controls.

"Somewhere far enough away not to attract attention, but close enough to get somewhere from," Sally replied.

Duo paused, "Gotcha." Wufei could feel the shuttle start to get hotter. It was shaking, getting out of control. "Hold on," Duo yelled unnecessarily. "This isn't gonna be pretty!"

Faster than he expected, Wufei was thrown forward as the ship hit the ground. He heard Hilde give out a strangled cry, but concentrated on keeping himself from hitting his head on anything. Finally, they were still.

Wufei looked up and glanced around to see how everybody was. Sally and Duo looked as if they had just come in for a perfectly normal landing, and they were working some things out in the systems, making it look like an accident. Hilde seemed okay.

"So," Hilde sat up, holding her head. "Where are we?"

Duo stood up and smiled, "Never mind. Let's move out before they come to investigate."

****

Noin's shuttle was hit hard by another blast. Her piloting skills were good, but it was hard to cut through the battle. She had no idea where she was going, either. Earth had been taken by the rebellion, so there was no chance she could go there. Her cover had effectively been blown the moment she blew up the ship.

Her scanners beeped at her. She looked down and saw that the force from Earth had arrived. That would help a little. The Pax organization didn't seem to be firing on the Earth force. 

Noin sent a call to the Earth force. One battleship and 2 dozen small fighters. Well, with the Pax organization helping out, it might be enough.

"This is Lieutenant Noin of the Preventers. I have information pertaining to the rebellion, but I could use a little help here," she waited for Earth to respond.

Zech's face came up on her screen.

"Zechs!" She exclaimed. She had thought that he was still with Heero.

"Noin, you can come aboard. They're looking for some more people to pilot the fighters."

Noin nodded. The ship she had now wasn't well-suited for fighting. "What about you?" She asked.

"I'm fighting, too."

Noin nodded while looking down at her readouts. "Zechs, one of the Pax ships is moving away."

"I see it. Nothing we can do about it. We have to win this battle, Noin."

Noin looked back up at the screen, at Zechs. She gave a quick nod. "Understood."

****

Perhaps the idea had been a mistake. Quatre hadn't thought it out very well because he was still a bit distraught over what was happening at his home. They had decided to head back to L2. Surely the rebellion would have left some of their people on the colony. If he and Trowa could find them, they could gather some information. Quatre wished they knew where the other pilots were, but Trowa didn't know, and Quatre hadn't heard anything about them. He assumed that they were all alright.

"Quatre, how's your arm feeling?" Trowa asked as they walked down the street. They had gathered from some of the people that there was a meeting house for the rebels in one of the apartment complexes in the grungy part of the colony.

Quatre put a hand on his right arm, moving it back and forth a bit to see if it was okay. "Better. Still a little stiff. What about your leg?"

Trowa looked surprised that he'd noticed. Quatre knew that he wasn't limping very badly, but it was there. Trowa shook his head, "Should be okay."

Quatre nodded, interpreting that to mean that he was fine walking on it, but it could be a weakness if they got into a fight.

"Excuse me," a voice from behind them said.

Trowa and Quatre turned around. A group of men stood behind them, one man standing in front of the others.

"You two looking for the rebellion?" The man asked.

"Perhaps. Why does it concern you?" Trowa replied. Quatre let him talk. Trowa was better at this sort of conversation.

"Two former Gundam pilots...snooping around. Kinda suspicious. Which side are you on?"

Quatre noticed that the men didn't seem to have any weapons. They might be part of the rebellion, but they seemed to have been sent out to get information, much like what Quatre and Trowa were trying to do.

"The side of peace," Trowa said, walking forward a few paces, raising his hands to show that he wasn't reaching for his weapon. Quatre stayed back.

"And which side is that?"

Quatre heard it before he saw it. A small shot, a gun with a silencer on. He turned his head to look behind him and saw a figure in the window of the apartment complex behind them, gun pointed straight at Trowa's back. It had been a setup.

"Trowa!" Quatre yelled and ran in between the shot and Trowa. He saw Trowa turn quickly, a surprised expression on his face, just as he felt the shot hit him square in the back.

****

Instinct took over as Trowa caught Quatre before he collapsed. Trowa already had his gun out and had sent a shot towards the window, but the gunman had already disappeared. He turned back to the group of men who had acted as a distraction, gun raised with one hand.

"Why?" He asked.

The men truly didn't have any weapons. The lead man spoke, "Because we don't want you all interfering."

"This isn't the way to get me out of your way," Trowa stated. He backed away slowly, gun still trained on the group of men. It was hard to move quickly as Quatre was a dead weight. Trowa could feel the warmth of the blood from Quatre's back soaking through his sleeve. Damn. He couldn't let his guard down to do anything right now. Trowa backed up, turning the corner. He'd have to get off L2. He knew a place that he could take Quatre to help him. But it would require some work to get off the colony.

Trowa looked down at the boy slumped over, supported only by his arm wrapped tight around his waist. Quatre's body felt cold, and Trowa knew that he was losing a lot of blood. He shook his head. Quatre couldn't die like this. Especially not because of a tactical error on Trowa's part. He shouldn't have stayed out in the open.

It was that moment that Trowa decided that after this was all over, he'd be staying with Quatre. Even if it meant leaving the circus. He didn't want to be separated from him again. But first, he had to make sure that Quatre stayed alive.

****

"Gone?"

"We were securing the area, per orders. This is the room that Miss Relena had assigned to her, but it's empty."

"She was in a coma. People in a coma don't just get up and walk out of the hospital. Especially when we have people stationed all around the city!"

"I'm just reporting what I saw, sir."

"Impossible!"


	9. Chapter Nine

Heero felt it. A shudder rocked his ship, telling him that somebody was docking with him. Heero supposed it was a rescue, but he got his gun out just in case. He had to be prepared for anything.

The hatch opened, and Heero cautiously got out of the battered fighter. He was in a large bay with all sorts of personnel bustling around. Everybody wore a deep blue uniform. Heero knew that Earth's forces wore green, and the rebels didn't have any uniforms. So this must be...

"Heero Yuy, it's so good to see you again."

Heero looked down to see Dorothy standing in front of his fighter looking entirely too pleased with herself. Heero jumped down to the floor, gun still in hand. He didn't know whether he should trust the Pax organization or not.

"You can put that away. We're fighting for the same thing, after all." She smiled, "I'm to take you to see Mr. Powell. He's very eager to meet you."

Heero lowered the gun, but he didn't put it up. He conceded that he didn't have much choice in the matter. He was stuck here, and this was a good opportunity to get some information. He gave a slight nod, and Dorothy turned around to lead him to Powell. He followed behind her.

"I understand Miss Relena's ideas about total pacifism," Dorothy said. "However, I think that it's just a dream. After all, look where we are now. Earth was not prepared to fight because they, in their naivete, threw away all their weapons. Thank goodness Mr. Powell started Pax. Otherwise we'd all be in a tight pinch, now wouldn't we?"

Heero was only half-listening to her. He was keeping track of where they were going so he could find his way out again, if need be. Besides, she didn't understand Relena's ideas at all.

"We were on our way to Earth when we came across the debris from your battle. We decided to stop to see if there were any survivors. Lucky thing we did, right?"

It was a large ship. The ship itself was heading to Earth, presumably to fight the rebels there.

"Here we are," Dorothy gestured into a room.

She followed him in as Heero entered. It was a medium-sized room with a window showing the stars. A man was standing behind a desk, looking out the window. He was about middle-aged. Heero could tell that he used to be muscular, but was now out of shape. The man's brown hair was tinged with gray.

"Mr. Powell, this is Heero Yuy." Dorothy introduced him. Then she bowed slightly, "I'll leave you two to talk."

Dorothy left quietly. Heero remained standing, waiting to see what Powell would say. Heero supposed he could thank him for the rescue, but he wasn't sure if it was genuine or not right now.

"Isn't she annoying?" Powell turned and said.

Heero didn't say anything. He didn't know what this man's intentions were, and he didn't plan on acting friendly towards him.

"But she's very passionate about the cause. Fighting for peace and all that. I suppose that's why I made her my second."

Heero knew this all had to be a lead-in to something.

"Still, I'd like to get rid of her. Intelligent though she may be, I'd rather have somebody with a better understanding of the colonies' plight."

"'Plight'?" Heero finally spoke.

"Yes. Dorothy was born and raised on Earth. She can't possibly fully understand the colonies' position. You, however can.

"The colonies want peace, but they also want more than they're getting from the current government. It's the Earth-Sphere Alliance all over again. Thus, the rebellion comes. Much like when you Gundams were sent to Earth to free the colonies. History does have a tendency to repeat itself, doesn't it?"

"This is different."

"Of course it is. Now the Earth is full of pacifists, making them an easy target. Fortunately, I created Pax so that we may defend the naive Earth."

"An independent group buying weapons on the Black Market with the intention of 'defending' Earth. Sounds suspicious to me."

"Then I suppose that is your refusal to join us?"

Heero nodded.

Powell looked out the window again, clasping his hands behind his back. "Very well, then. We'll take you to Earth."

"That's it?"

"That's it. No tricks. We aren't going to force you to join us. We are fighting on the same side, regardless."

"So I've heard," Heero muttered.

Powell turned to him with a quizzical look. Then he smiled, "You may go. Dorothy will show you to your room. We'll work on repairing your fighter. Rest before we get to Earth."

Heero nodded. It would be stupid to refuse their hospitality. He turned, without saying thanks, and left.

****

Noin cursed as her fighter strained to make the tight turn she was making it do. They had had some extra fighters available, but they weren't in the best condition. It was taking Noin a while to adjust to that, and she kept overestimating it's abilities.

A shot hit her port side as Noin pulled up sharply. Things were not going well. Even with the help of the Pax group, the Earth forces were being trounced. 

"Noin, the rebel ships." She heard Zech's voice come through over her headphones.

She looked down at her scanners. The rebel ships were leaving, but they weren't going back to the colony. "The Pax ships seem to be following them," she replied. "Where are they going?"

"They're taking this battle to Earth." Zechs said.

"Earth?"

"It seems that that's where the stage has been set for the final scene."

Noin nodded, though she knew he couldn't see her. "Then that's where we're going." She prepped her ship to follow the others.

Over her headphones, she heard Zechs giving orders to the rest of the fleet to fall back to Earth. 

****

"We need to get to the capital. Once there, we can find out who's the ringleader of this thing and get rid of them." Wufei crossed his arms and looked out the window. They had made it to a small town and rented a motel room. They couldn't stay long. There'd be an investigation into the crash. But they needed a place to discuss their strategy.

"Shouldn't be that difficult with you two," Duo said. "I bet you guys know your way around the capital real well."

Sally and Wufei looked at each other. "We know the capital as it was under Earth rule. However, the rebels might have changed things when they took over. We can't rely on our knowledge." Sally said.

"It still shouldn't be that hard," Hilde spoke up. "You just need a couple people to go in ahead of you two and scout out the place. Right, Duo?" She grinned.

Duo scratched his head, "You know, Hilde. This is sorta dangerous. Maybe you should - "

"I'm not sitting out on this one. I'm here. I'm helping," she said.

Duo sighed, "Yeah, thought so. Figured I might as well try. Okay, so how's that sound? Hilde and I'll go in first and see what's there. We're both pretty good at going unnoticed."

Wufei tossed a communicator to Duo. "The capital isn't far. You two go on ahead. We'll be nearby and ready to move in at your word."

Duo smiled, "Sounds like a plan to me."

****

The capital city was very large, very crowded, and very rich. Duo felt like he barely fit in. Especially since he was wearing the same clothes he'd been wearing for a day or so. Still, Hilde and he managed to look inconspicuous among the crowd. You couldn't even tell there was a rebellion in the city. Everybody was going about business as usual. Duo wondered if they even knew what was going on.

The capitol, itself, was a collection of large buildings in the middle of the city. It was practically a city in itself. There were residences, recreation facilities, medical facilities, schools, and, of course, the government buildings. This was where things got tricky. The buildings were enclosed by a rather tall fence. Normally, the gates would be open to allow the people freedom to move in and out. Now, however, the gates were closed, and there were armed guards all around the fence.

"How are we getting in?" Hilde asked, noticing Duo's look of concentration.

"Well, I don't think the straightforward route will work. Those guards aren't likely to let anybody in. We could actually climb that fence. It isn't that high. We'd just need to get the guards away from one area long enough to do it." He scanned the fence. "Got your pack, Hilde?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I'm taking a page out of Heero's book."

"What?"

Duo smiled at her, "We're going in loud and flashy."

****

As expected, the guards rushed to the explosion at the East end of the fence. Meanwhile, there was a small area of the West fence covered by tall trees. Two people jumped stealthily down from the fence and ran to the closest building.

"Hey, Dragon," Duo whispered into his communicator. "We're in the West Building. What's here?"

"Swimming pool. Not much else. Try to get to the center building. That's were the government offices are." Wufei's voice came back.

"Gotcha. Lotsa guards around here."

"Figured there would be. Be careful."

"Hey, it's me!" Duo said. Then he switched the communicator off. "Come on, Hilde. We gotta get from here to that big building in the middle without anybody seeing us."

"No problem!"

****

Quatre didn't know quite what he expected to see when he woke up. He remembered jumping between a bullet and Trowa. In retrospect, Quatre decided that that wasn't the smartest thing for him to do. However, he decided that it was worth it if Trowa was unharmed. He opened his eyes slowly, getting adjusted to the soft light of...wherever he was.

"Trowa?" He was in a bed with blankets tucked around him and bandages wrapped around his chest. He assumed that Trowa had gotten him here.

"Good! You're awake!" That wasn't Trowa's voice.

Quatre opened his eyes all the way and saw that woman, Catherine, sitting beside him. She looked very relieved to see him awake. Quatre wondered how long he'd been out.

"How are you feeling?" She smiled.

Quatre just shook his head. His back ached, and even the slightest movement sent pain through his body. The bullet must have hit a nerve.

Catherine stood up, "You wait right there. I don't think Trowa's left yet."

Left? Where was Trowa going? Quatre tried to sit up, but decided that that was a bad idea. Instead he looked around to see where he was. He was in a small trailer, probably in Trowa's circus. Quatre noticed a clown suit in the corner and figured that this was Trowa's trailer.

"Trowa!" He exclaimed when he saw Trowa walk in. He blushed. He'd realized that he had a bad habit of saying Trowa's name a lot.

Trowa just smiled. He sat down in the chair that Catherine had been in. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Quatre said.

Trowa looked doubtful. "Your wound got infected on the way here. I didn't want to take you to a hospital because the rebellion seems to have spread past L2. The circus is a very low-key place, and Catherine will be able to take care of you."

"Where are you going?"

"I have to find the others. It's the only way now. You're in no condition to go anywhere, though. You stay here, and I'll come back for you."

"But Trowa - " Quatre knew that Trowa was right, but he couldn't stand knowing that the others were out fighting while he was stuck in bed.

"Quatre," Trowa said to quiet him. Then Trowa leaned over and put a hand on Quatre's shoulder. He bent down and kissed Quatre softly on the cheek. "You just get better," he sat back up.

That had wiped all arguments from Quatre's mind. He just stammered, "Um...okay."

Trowa smiled, then stood up and left the room. Quatre remained still, a bit dumbfounded, before Catherine walked in a few minutes later.

"Are you okay? Your face is a little red." Catherine looked concerned.

Quatre shook his head and smiled, "I'm just fine."

****

Catherine had argued with him about leaving now, especially about leaving Quatre behind. But Trowa really had no choice. The situation was getting worse, and it seemed that the fight was moving to Earth. Trowa was sure that he'd be able to find the other pilots once he got there.

Trowa smiled. The look on Quatre's face had been priceless, and he regretted having to leave him. He was sure that he could use Quatre's help. But Quatre needed to rest now.

Trowa checked his watch. Only a couple hours flight to Earth. Hopefully he'd get there in time.


	10. Chapter Ten

The Pax group was true to their word, at least. Heero had the freedom to go pretty much anywhere on the ship. He kept to his own fighter for most of the trip, however.

Once they reached Earth, Heero moved to the bridge to see what would happen. He predicted a large battle, and he hoped that the Pax group would have the sense to try to move it away from the planet. The last thing they needed was the earth being endangered by reckless fighting.

"We've arrived at Earth, sir. Rebel forces are protecting it heavily." An officer said. "The Earth fleet has just arrived."

"Fire on the rebel fleet. Give cover to the Earth ships!" Dorothy yelled from her position beside Powell's chair.

"Ignore that order," Powell said softly. 

"Sir?" Dorothy turned to him.

"Dorothy, you're too impulsive. You've jumped into this battle without seeing which side you're actually on." Powell smiled.

"What?"

"Fire on the Earth ships. Send a message to the rebels. Tell them that their leader has arrived."

The officer at the front hesitated only a moment before carrying out the orders. Heero drew his gun as Dorothy stepped back.

"What's going on?" Heero asked.

"The name 'Powell' belonged to a dear friend of mine who died in the war. My true name is Blanc. As you can probably guess, Pax is just a ruse." Powell said calmly.

"No!" Dorothy yelled.

"You started this." Heero said more than asked.

Powell nodded.

"Then I'm going to kill you," Heero raised his gun and prepared to shoot.

Dorothy jumped in front of him, "No! Don't!" She turned around so that Heero's gun was at her back, "Mr. Powell, surely you don't mean that everything you said was a lie! You believe in peace, right? That's what you told me!"

"Peace is dead. They killed it. I'm trying to set things right." Powell answered.

"But, Mr. Powell!"

"Dorothy, move!" Heero said.

Dorothy paused for a moment before stepping aside. Heero wondered briefly why Powell didn't seem worried when he pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. Heero pulled the gun back and stared at it as if that would make bullets magically appear.

"Oh, yes, Heero. I took the liberty of alleviating you of your ammunition. We couldn't have an armed man running freely around our ship, could we?" Powell said.

"What now?" Heero asked.

"Do what you will. I have no wish to kill you now. We accomplished our goals despite your interference." Powell wasn't paying any attention to him.

He was overconfident. Heero could tell. Powell thought that he had already won.

"Come on," Heero said to Dorothy.

"Where are we going?" Dorothy followed him as he left the bridge.

"We're going to Earth. Once we get the capital back, the rebels will be nothing more than some ships in space."

"What about Mr. Powell?"

"Let him play his games. I'll take care of him later."

****

"We're having to step things up. We're moving in." Duo frowned as he heard Sally's voice come through the communicator.

"Gotcha. What's happening?"

"Pax is attacking the Earth fleet. They're working with the rebels."

"What? Are you sure?"

"We're watching it on the monitor now. What's your position?"

Duo looked around. "Um...broom closet in the government building." Hilde lazily tapped her fingers against a broom that was leaning next to her. "They've got guards right outside. It's the first place we managed to duck into."

"Okay. We'll meet up with you. Gotta go."

"Good luck."

Duo leaned his head back. They'd been waiting in the damn closet forever. It had taken a lot of sneak work to get in, and when they had seen guards coming, they naturally ducked into the first room they found. If only they'd known that the stupid rebels would stand right outside the door TALKING for hours. Man, did they ever shut up?

Duo knew that if they hadn't run into this obstacle, they could've gotten to the offices and probably could've taken care of that traitor, Brax, by now.

Hilde nudged his foot with her own and mouthed, "Listen."

He strained his ears to hear something and finally noticed a deep rumbling sound. The guards' voices outside picked up.

"That's an explosion," he whispered back to her. But Wufei and Sally couldn't have gotten here that quickly.

He heard another explosion, closer this time. The guards were running away so Duo poked his head out to see what was going on. The hallway was empty.

"Come on, Hilde! Time to go!" He yelled behind him and ran down the corridor. He heard her footsteps behind him.

The offices should be upstairs...but where? They might have to wait for Wufei, otherwise they'd just get lost wandering blindly around the huge building. Duo rounded a corner and nearly collided with the not-so-nice end of a gun. He instinctively raised his own gun. Then he noticed who it was, and he relaxed.

"Heero! Where've you been?" He exclaimed. Heero slowly lowered his weapon.

"Are you trying to find Brax?" Heero asked, ignoring Duo's question.

Duo nodded, looking at the blonde standing behind Heero. She seemed vaguely familiar somehow...

"You're going the wrong way. It's this way." Heero started walking back the way Duo and Hilde had came.

Duo followed, "Should've known it was you with those explosions. Well, you owe me an apology, pal, leaving me in the hands of the enemy like that. What a way to treat a friend!"

Heero stopped and turned slightly, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well - Wha?" Duo froze as Heero started walking again. He hadn't expected the guy to actually apologize. And that sounded sincere, too. Well, that just meant that he was making progress.

"Duo, come on!" Hilde grabbed his hand and ran after Heero and the other girl, who were already far ahead of them.

****

With all the fighting going on above Earth, it hadn't been hard for Trowa to find a spot on the planet to land. The trouble was figuring out where the others were. Trowa supposed they'd be at the capital. The trouble was that the capital seemed to be in a state of chaos at the moment. Armed rebels were clearing civilians out of the city, entirely.

Trowa had his gun out and attempted to blend in. The rebels didn't wear uniforms so they would think he was just another soldier. He could hear some explosions in the distance. That settled it. The others were definitely here.

"Trowa?" He heard somebody say his name. Trowa turned around to see Wufei approaching him. "We've been wondering where you went to."

"I've had some things to take care of. Quatre's out of action for now. I take it we're heading to the capitol?"

Wufei nodded, "Duo's already in there." He paused. "Though I don't recall him having that many explosives."

That might mean that there was somebody else helping them. "Let's go." Trowa said.

****

"What the hell are they doing?" Noin shouted as the Earth ship rocked under the combined attack of Pax and the rebels. She put a hand against the wall of the corridor to brace herself.

"A clever trap. They lure us back to Earth, letting us think we have the upper-hand, then they turn the tables on us." Zechs frowned. "Get to your fighter, Noin. We're not backing away from this one."

"What about you?" Noin asked.

"I'm staying here for now. I'll help coordinate the attack."

Noin shook her head. That wasn't like Zechs at all. Zechs never liked playing behind the scenes. He was always out in the middle of the battle...even at times when he shouldn't be. Noin knew that. And she knew that if he were staying, that meant that we was planning to do something completely crazy.

"Noin, they'll need a good pilot like you out there," Zechs said.

"And what about a good pilot like you?" Noin replied.

"Noin," Zechs reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her close to him. "You have to go. Trust me when I tell you that I'll be alright."

She trusted him. She had to. They'd been through so much together, it would be impossible to have done any of that without trust. She backed away.

"Fine," she said, turning around to get to her fighter. "But don't die on me, Zechs."

"I don't intend to, Noin."

****

While Duo might have needed some crafty trick to get into the capitol, it was a piece of cake for Wufei and Trowa. Most of the guards had gone elsewhere, and portions of the fence had already been completely blown out.

The two ignored most of the rebels. They were focused on the higher-ups. The people who were running the rebellion. Once they were gone, the rest would fall apart.

"There you are, Wufei!" Wufei saw Sally come running up to him. They'd decided to split up to strengthen their chances of one of them getting in. It seemed they shouldn't have worried.

"Heero's here," Sally said. "They're going after Brax. We need to find Kav."

"Kav?" Trowa asked.

"Representative from the L2 colonies. He sided with the rebels on this one. Shot Relena Darlian and ran away." Wufei explained.

"How do we know he's here?" Trowa said.

"Where else would he be?" Wufei said.

****

Heero wished he didn't have 3 people in tow with him. Duo would be okay. But Dorothy and Hilde would just get in the way. The upper offices were pretty much empty, but Heero could hear the rustling of papers from down the hall. Somebody was still there.

Heero motioned for the two girls to stay back as he crept quietly down the rest of the length. The office door was open and Heero could see Brax, the president that had betrayed them, busily gathering papers into a briefcase. Heero swung around into the room, bringing his gun up.

Brax dropped the papers and held his hands in the air, obviously surprised by the intrusion. "Okay! I surrender!" He closed his eyes.

Heero walked forward, gun still up, and looked into the briefcase. A lot of money and other miscellaneous papers. Typical crooked politician. Willing to give up peace and the lives of his people for some money. It was very tempting just to shoot him and rid the world of one more corrupt person. What point was there in fighting for peace when there'd always be people like this?

Heero felt somebody place a hand on his arm, pushing it down.

"Hey, Heero. He surrendered." Duo said quietly.

Brax looked downright terrified. Heero knew that he could be very intimidating when he wanted to be.

Duo walked forward, pulling the briefcase away and placing his pack on the desk. He pulled out some rope.

"Sorry, but we're gonna have to tie you up for the moment. We have other things we need to get done. I'm sure you understand," he said.

Brax just gulped and nodded.

"Duo! Out the window! Look!" Hilde rushed in shouting.

Heero turned to look out of the large office window. He could barely see it. Two specks in the sky, coming closer. Falling to Earth? He felt Duo come up beside him.

"Damn," the other pilot muttered.

The objectives had changed. Heero turned and ran out the door. He was sure he could find a fighter somewhere.

****

"Sir, the Pax ship is trying to get around us!" The officer at the helm yelled.

Zechs just nodded. He knew that the Blanc would want to get to the surface. He had made the Earth battleship take position so as to block any Pax attempt of making it to the earth. Unfortunately, the Pax ship was pushing them further into Earth's orbit. Zechs didn't want to destroy the Earth by falling into it.

So this was it. In the end, even an organization that spouted peace turned out to be hungry for war.

****

Relena felt as if somebody had tied Gundanium weights to her eyelids. She was awake, but was having trouble DOING anything. She couldn't tell where she was, but she heard a faint rustling sound.

The last thing she remembered was...what? Quatre being assigned as her bodyguard. No, there was something else, too. Something had happened.

Where was she?

Relena tried to move her fingers, but she wasn't sure if she were succeeding or not. 

Quatre was her bodyguard because something had been happening with the colonies. With L2. Kav visited her, and...

He shot her? She remembered. He had been working for them the entire time.

That left her with the same question: Where was she now?

Relena slowly opened her eyes, squinting in the soft light above her. She made a small noise and heard somebody walking toward her.

"How are you feeling?" She heard somebody ask.

Relena gracelessly turned her head to the side to see Lady Une standing next to her bed. "Where am I?" Relena asked in a voice barely above a whisper. She noticed that Lady Une had a bandage on her head. How long had she been out?

"A small, unnoticed hotel just outside the capital. They tried to capture me during the takeover, but I managed to escape. I was able to get you out, as well."

"Takeover?"

Lady Une sighed, "It's a long story. The short of it is, we need you more than ever now, Relena Peacecraft."


	11. Chapter Eleven

The capitol was surprisingly empty. Well, maybe not so surprisingly. Wufei should've guessed that Duo's explosions would scare everybody away. That might mean that their target had left. Regardless, they had to search upstairs to make sure he hadn't taken cover in the offices there.

He and Sally split up, again, each being very familiar with the layout. Trowa stuck with Wufei. Sally was searching the East Wing of the second story while Wufei and Trowa looked West. They reached Relena's office early on, and Wufei felt it would be a good idea to search there. After all, Kav had had connections with Relena.

Somebody had been in there. The desk was a mess, as if somebody had searched it thoroughly for papers. Wufei had no idea of telling how recently that had been.

"I'll start searching the offices on the other side of the hall. It'll be quicker," Trowa said.

Wufei nodded and listened to him leave. The Preventers had, of course, had a lot of hard assignments in the past year. But nothing as big as this. Usually it was a minor uprising; Some ex-OZ officer wanting to bring back the old days of glory. Why couldn't they just leave well enough alone? Was peace really that bad for some people?

Nobody was there. The office was empty. Wufei turned and went back into the hallway. He didn't see Trowa, but he figured that he was probably in one of the rooms further down. 

Before Wufei could even move to look, somebody yanked him into one of the side rooms. His attacker punched him in the stomach before Wufei had time to react. Wufei didn't fall that easily, though. He lashed out, punching the man across the face. He got a clear look at him. It was Kav, sure enough. What he was still doing here was anybody's guess.

Wufei pulled his gun out, but Kav was a split second faster. He'd brought his gun out and shot Wufei's gun out of his hand. Wufei smiled. What an idiot. Now Trowa would come and give him some backup.

"What are you smiling at?" Kav asked, looking confident.

Before Wufei had a chance to reply, another shot was heard. Kav's face changed from one of smug confidence to disbelief. He fell to the ground. Wufei turned to the door, crossing his arms.

"Thanks for the rescue, Trowa." Wufei did a double-take. It wasn't Trowa who had shot Kav. Quatre was standing in the doorway to the office, slowly lowering the gun he was holding.

****

Quatre should have felt a mixture of satisfaction and guilt over what he'd done. Probably also some amusement at Wufei's facial expression. However, the only thing he could think about was the pain in his back. 

"Trowa said you weren't coming." Wufei said.

"Quatre?"

Quatre turned around to see Trowa standing in the hallway, weapon out. Quatre had wondered, on the way to Earth, whether Trowa would get mad at him or not. He shouldn't have worried.

Trowa just nodded and said, "I guess you're feeling better."

Quatre shook his head, "Not really. But I want to help you guys. Two of the warships are dangerously close to falling to the Earth. We have to do something."

Wufei stepped past Quatre and out of the office, "I'm not sure what we can do. We don't have any ships."

"Let's check to see if there's anything in the city." Quatre said.

Wufei nodded and started walking quickly down the hallway. Quatre walked alongside Trowa. Without a word, Quatre grabbed Trowa's hand and held it tight. Trowa glanced at him but didn't say anything.

****

Either Cathy had gone nuts or Quatre had snuck past her. Trowa decided that it must be the latter. He could tell that Quatre was in a great deal of pain, but he couldn't keep him from this battle. It wouldn't be right.

Ahead of them, Wufei had his communicator out and was contacting Sally and Duo. Wufei turned around, "Heero somehow made it here. He's already commandeered the last fighter in the city and has gone to try to stop Blanc." If Wufei noticed the handholding, he apparently didn't care enough to comment.

"Where's Duo and Sally now?" Quatre asked.

"Sally's in the east part of the building. She'll meet up with us. Duo's downstairs on the grounds, heading towards a military center a bit aways from this building."

"Tell Duo to continue to the military center. He can at least monitor what's going on from there. We'll meet him down there and see what we can do." Quatre said.

Wufei nodded and turned around to give the messages to Duo and Sally. 

****

This just wasn't Duo's day. Of course, he should have figured that the military center would be full of rebels. He peered over the hood of the car he was taking cover behind. Dorothy and Hilde sat beside him.

"How's it look?" Hilde asked.

"Crowded," Duo replied. "With a lot of rebels. And I'm low on ammo."

"Same here," Hilde said.

Dorothy smiled, holding up a bag she'd had slung across her back, "Ammo shouldn't be a problem. Heero Yuy packs like a demolition man."

Duo silently thanked whatever god was listening that Heero liked to blow stuff up.

****

"There they are!" Sally said, noticing the three soldiers taking cover behind a car.

Wufei and Sally ducked around the corner of a nearby building. It looked like the rebels didn't want anybody getting into the military center.

Wufei poked his head around the corner to see Duo waving back at him. He turned to his partner, "Looks like they're stuck for the moment."

"So are we. We can't even get close to the building with all this shooting." Sally was checking her gun for ammo.

Wufei nodded, "We'll have to use the gas bombs."

"Without masks? Plus, we'd just knock out Duo and the others."

Wufei slipped the pack from his shoulder. "We'll just have to hold our breaths going in. I'm handing this off to Duo."

Sally looked skeptical but didn't stop him. "Do what you have to."

Wufei looked back around the corner. Duo seemed very far away. He brought his arm back and did a sidearm throw to Duo, hoping it wouldn't set the bombs off. It didn't. The pack hit Duo's foot, and he grabbed at it triumphantly. He gave Wufei the thumbs up sign before handing out the goods to Hilde and Dorothy.

Wufei turned back to Sally. "They have them. Give them a few seconds to take affect, then we move in."

Sally nodded.

****

Wufei was having some difficulties getting in through the front. Fortunately, the back was not nearly as well guarded. The rebels had underestimated them. Quatre waited patiently while Trowa tried to crack through the security systems to open up the back door. He sat with his back to the wall of the building, and pushed himself against it. Sometimes the pressure would make the pain lessen slightly. 

He glanced over at Trowa, who's full attention was on hacking into the system. He wondered why they had decided to separate after the war. No, he knew why. But looking back on it, he thought it was for some rather unimportant reasons. Because when it came down to it, Quatre didn't want to leave Trowa again. Ever.

****

"Got it," Trowa announced, getting his gun out. Beside him, Quatre stood up, ready to enter the building. Trowa could tell that Quatre was in a lot of pain, but he didn't feel that he should stop him from fighting. Quatre was smart enough to know when he should quit.

Upon seeing that Quatre was ready to go, Trowa gave him a curt nod and headed in, taking the front to see if anybody were there. Nobody was. It seemed as if the rebels had sent all their troops to the front to try to hold off Wufei and Duo. Trowa mentally shook his head at their tactical error.

With Quatre close behind him, Trowa delved further into the center. The main control room had to be near the middle of the building. If they could get there without any incident - 

"Down!" Quatre yelled and pushed Trowa to the ground and around a corner. Some rebels had come up behind them. Quatre fired off some blind shots around the corner as Trowa stood, searching through his pack for the small explosives Wufei had given him. He grabbed Quatre's shoulder and pulled him back from the other corridor, throwing the grenades.

Quatre and Trowa both braced themselves against the floor as the explosion rumbled past them. They waited, listening to see if any of the rebels had survived. They hadn't.

"So much for stealth," Quatre said.

That much was true. The explosion had undoubtedly alerted the rebels as to their presence. Trowa stood quickly, giving Quatre a hand in getting up. He wished he had had a chance to study the layout of the building. As it was, he had Wufei's hurried instructions to go on.

But he would have to make do. Trowa recognized the corridor he was in and kept running down it, relying on Quatre to bring up the rear.

"Trowa!" Quatre exclaimed. Trowa whirled around. He could tell that that was an exclamation of surprise, not of a threat. Trowa's eyes widened slowly as he saw what was behind them.

****

Run, run, run, dodge, and run some more. Duo really missed fighting with a Gundam. Less monotony. Plus, if somebody hit your Gundam, it would really hurt them more than it hurt you.

"Left!" Sally yelled from behind him. They'd split up. Duo and Hilde going with Sally, and Wufei and Dorothy were taking another route to the control room. Less targets for the enemies to shoot at.

Duo could see it. A lone door at the end of the hall. They'd made it.

"You'll need a card to get in. They've probably changed the protocols. We'll have to hack in." Sally said.

"That'll take too long," Duo said, while raising his gun. He shot at the card slot, hoping to fry enough of the circuits to convince the computer that there was an emergency. Most buildings had it so the doors would open in an emergency so as to not trap anybody inside. Thank goodness this building had the same programming.

The door flew open and the three were greeted with a lot of gunfire, but no real place to take cover. Duo crouched in the space beside the door, Hilde huddled against him. Sally glared at him from the other side.

"Maybe that wasn't my brightest idea," Duo admitted.

Then he heard the gunfire slow. He risked a look around the corner and saw Wufei and Dorothy taking care of most of the rebels, shooting carefully so as not to harm any of the systems.

Duo and Sally both stood at the same time, firing at the remaining rebels. Finally, they were gone.

Duo looked across the room at Wufei, who just nodded at him.

"Now what?" Duo asked.

As he said that, the door on the far side of the room opened. Duo's jaw dropped. Lady Une entered, looking around at the number of bodies on the floor, then at the band of soldiers that had retaken the room. Then, without a word, she stepped aside. An exhausted-looking Relena Darlian with an arm around Trowa's shoulders entered. Duo could tell that if Trowa removed his arm from her waist, she would collapse. He set her down on a chair as Quatre walked in last.

Relena looked down at the console in front of her. "I need to send a message out."

****

"Noin, what's your status?"

Noin had to grin. She wondered if Zechs asked the other pilots about their status. She wiped some of the sweat from her brow. The cockpit tended to get hot when the system was running at full power like this. "Weapons are almost out. We're getting a little tired out here."

"No good. The Pax ship is breaking away, but a small fighter has left. We think it's Blanc."

Noin checked her system's status. "Damn," she said softly. The Pax's ships were in better condition then they had been to begin with. "Don't know if we're up to getting him. We'll try."

There was a pause. Noin knew that somebody was informing Zechs of something. His voice came back, "Noin, another ship has just joined us from Earth."

"Earth? Just one ship? It isn't a rebel?" Noin asked.

"No, it's not threatening us. It's Heero Yuy."

Noin remained silent for a few seconds, then smiled. "Then this fight is nearly over."

****

There had been one working fighter left. Although, "working" was probably an exaggeration. Heero wouldn't trust this fighter to climb trees with, much less fight. But he had to use what he had.

Heero checked his scanners. He'd noticed the small fighter leaving the Pax vessel. He had no doubt that it was Blanc. The man was persistent in getting to Earth. Heero ignored the various Earth forces and zeroed in on Blanc.

His monitor switched on unexpectedly. Somebody was sending a wideband transmission. Heero hurried to shut it off and froze when he saw who it was. His hand moved away from the switch.

"Relena."

****

"This is Relena Peacecraft speaking," Relena said. She had no idea what she was going to say. Lady Une had briefly told her what had happened while she was out. But she hadn't had a chance to get her thoughts together. Not to mention that she was really tired. She paused. What could she say?

_No, Relena,_ she thought. _Don't think about it. Just talk._

"For the past year, we have lived in a time of relative peace. However, it seems as though there were some problems with that peace. Could we truly call it a peace when a rebellion is forming or when an organization such as Pax is gathering weapons?"

****

Blanc at first just tried to go around Heero, but Heero wasn't about to let him do that. He fired a shot at the other fighter's engines, trying to disable it. Blanc was a good pilot, though. He turned and dived towards Heero's ship.

A couple shots hit, but didn't do any damage. Heero turned starboard and fired some more. No good. Blanc was on his tail now. Not a good position for a fighter pilot to be in.

Heero pulled up sharply. He could hear the ship straining around him. His controls froze up for a second, then came back. Blanc didn't attempt to follow him. Heero curved to the port side and dove to where he was head-to-head with Blanc. Nobody could ignore that.

****

"Perhaps there can be no real peace. Because if only one person in the world wants to fight, then that will destroy the peace we've been trying to make. Perhaps people just forget what real war is like, so they have no fear of starting another one."

****

Blanc fired, but Heero slipped to the side quickly to avoid the shots. He couldn't let his ship get hit too much. It wouldn't be able to withstand too many shots. Heero replied with some shots of his own, aiming for critical systems on the ship.

At the last moment, Heero dove down under Blanc's ship. As effective as it may be, Heero wasn't on a suicide mission this time. He intended to live past this incident.

****

"However, I think you all remember. You remember the sacrifices that were made during the war. You remember the pointless lives lost. You remember the homes that were destroyed. But does anybody even remember what we were fighting about? How about now? What's this fight all about? Freedom of the colonies...or one man's lust for battle?"

****

Heero turned as quickly as he could, but Blanc was faster. A lucky shot had hit one of Heero's port engines. He felt the fighter shudder as the one port engine left worked overtime to compensate for the loss.

He cut back power to the starboard engines. No use burning the port one out to keeping from turning circles in space. He just would lose even more speed. He glanced out the window and saw Earth. No space. No colonies. Just Earth. Maybe this time, the earth could help him...

****

"Many of you may not be aware that the leader of the so-called Pax organization is also the leader of the rebels. His mission is not one to liberate the colonies, as he says. His mission is purely that of war. And he's manipulated the colonies into working for him."

****

While at first, Blanc may have just wanted to get past Heero to get to the earth. It now seemed obvious that Blanc wanted to kill Heero before going. That suited Heero just fine. He would play the one card he had left.

Heero let Blanc tail him, leading him into Earth's orbit. Blanc was firing, but Heero made sure to keep wiggling around, making it hard for Blanc to get a lock on him. When he noticed the ship struggling against Earth's gravity, he turned sharply 180 degrees. Then he put full thrust to his engines, not really caring if they burned out after this.

Blanc was caught by surprise. He slowed, not wanting to risk injuring his own engines with the sharp turn. That gave Heero the time he needed.

****

"Earth does not want to and will not fight the colonies. We are aware of the problems within the colonies, however those problems are not isolated to the colonies. Those problems occur even on the earth. Fighting over them would be pointless. Instead, we can work together to take care of it."

****

Heero fired all his weapons, draining his ammo. He'd risked everything on this. He felt his engines give out and started floating dead in space, yet he still fired.

It worked. Blanc's ship exploded. It was over. Without the ringleader, the rest of this circus of a rebellion would fall apart.

"Mission accomplished," Heero said.

****

"We all need to remember that peace is something that can only be obtained if we all believe in it. We all need to want it. Otherwise we'll be forced to see more lives lost in meaningless battles."


	12. Epilogue

**AN: *Whew* It's finished. Now to tie up loose ends and all. Thanks to everybody who reviewed. It was great hearing from you. Thanks also to everybody who read it, but didn't review. I know you're just shy. :) Anyway, feedback is still lovely, love it or hate it.**

_Mission accomplished,_ Wufei thought as he filed away his report of this latest...incident, for lack of a better word. He gave a small smile as he looked out the window, glad to see that things were back the way they were before this thing had broken out.

Sally came down, sitting in the chair beside him. She rested her elbow on his shoulder and peered at his computer screen.

"Done with your report?" She asked. He nodded. "Good. I've been doing some work, myself."

"Oh? What have you been doing?" He asked.

"Recruiting. I thought you might be interested as to who I've picked up as Preventer's agents."

Wufei turned and smiled at her. He had a pretty good idea what she was going to say, "Who?"

"Noin and Zechs joined back up. I also got Duo and Heero to join. That wasn't too difficult. Trowa took some convincing, though." She smiled. "And I also managed to snatch Quatre."

"Quatre? How'd you do that?"

"It wasn't too hard once I talked to him."

****

Trowa sat at the table in the small cafe and read his book in relative silence. He hadn't hesitated to accept Sally's offer to join the Preventers. It was an area where Trowa knew he could help people. Plus, he was sure it wouldn't be difficult to arrange things so that he was assigned to the L4 colonies. Hopefully on a base next to a certain Quatre Winner. 

He felt somebody place a hand on his shoulder, and he turned slightly to see Quatre sitting down next to him. He didn't let his puzzlement show, but he did wonder why Quatre was wearing a Preventer's uniform.

"Quatre?" He questioned, placing the book down on the table.

Quatre smiled at him, "I gave it up. Gave ownership of the Winner estate to my sisters. I know it's kind of unorthodox, but that business really didn't suit me." He smiled. "Besides, there were some things here on Earth that I really didn't want to give up."

Trowa knew without asking what Quatre meant. He smiled and took Quatre's hand, pulling him close for a small hug. "I'm glad that you decided to stay."

Quatre put his arms around Trowa, sitting up so that they were nose-to-nose. He smiled, "Me, too. We're partners now, Trowa!"

****

Duo slapped a hand on Hilde's shoulder, "So. Gonna be my roomie here on Earth? I'm sure you can find a new job."

Hilde smiled. "Actually, Duo," she held up her hand, showing off a ring on her finger. "Jeb proposed to me. I'm going to live on L2 with him."

After a few seconds, Duo reminded himself to pick his jaw off the floor. He threw his arms around Hilde and gave her a hug. "Congrats, Hilde! You're getting married!" Then he pulled away, holding her at arm's length. "Wait, you're marrying Mr. Personality?"

Hilde laughed, "He's a nice guy, Duo! Just cause somebody isn't as loud as you are doesn't mean they're boring." She smiled slyly, "So...wanna be my Maid of Honor?"

"Wha...huh!?"

"Just kidding!" Hilde laughed. "I hate to leave you like this, though. Are you going to be okay rooming by yourself?"

"By myself? Like hell. I'm finding a roomie even if it kills me!"

****

"I would think the Preventers would go against your pacifist ideals," Heero said. Relena was laying back in the overstuffed armchair, her eyes closed. She'd been taking a vacation to get some much-needed rest. However, she never strayed far from the capitol.

"I think I've lost a lot of my idealistic nature. I must think practically. No matter how many speeches I make, or how many rebellions we stop, there will always be a need for the Preventers." She opened her eyes and smiled. "I just hope that the next time won't be quite as major as this one."

Heero nodded. Relena stood up, still a bit shaky, Heero noticed. She pulled Heero into a hug. "You always show up to save the day," she commented.

Heero didn't say anything, but returned the hug. She released him and sat back down. "You're tired. I'll go now." He said, turning.

"Heero," she called. He paused. "You're going to be living in the capitol now. I expect to be able to get together for lunch now and then."

Having no objection to this, Heero nodded slightly before walking out.

He walked slowly to the Preventer's HQ. No use walking quickly now. He had a some time off for his work in the latest "incident". They were calling it an "incident".

"Heero! Just the guy I wanted to see!" Heero turned to see Duo run up and latch a firm arm around his shoulders. Duo already had his Preventer's uniform on. "Listen, since you and I have been assigned as partners in the Preventers and all, I thought it might make sense for us to share an apartment. You know, split the costs and everything."

Heero knew that Duo didn't have that much money. Hilde must have decided to stay on L2 for some reason. Living with Duo...could be interesting. Heero just nodded.

Duo smiled, "Great! I've already got a place picked out..."


End file.
